


Jessika Pava: Best Wingman in the Resistance!

by ScarlettStorm



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/F, Friendship, JUST KISS ALREADY, Knitting, M/M, Pining, Slow Burn, everyone gets therapy, jess will mess you up, jessika pava is a great wingman, jessika pava is the best, so many baked goods, the other pilots ship poe and finn, there is actual mental health care in space, these boys are idiots, this is probably gonna be rated M in later chapters if I ever get there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-13 20:45:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 48,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5716459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarlettStorm/pseuds/ScarlettStorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Listen, Poe.  As your friend and your wingman, it’s my duty to make sure you actually score with the pretty people you’re crushing on--”  Poe opened his mouth to try to protest that it wasn’t like that but Jess slapped a hand over it and barreled on “--and currently you both look and smell like hot garbage.  Finn is never going to want to hit that if he wakes up and his first impression is ‘who cut open that tauntaun in here and left it to rot,’ so I am ordering you to at least go take a shower and change out of the flight suit you’ve been marinating in for the last thirty-seven hours.”  She stepped back, hands on her hips, and glared at him with her best General Organa impression.</p><p>Poe narrowed his eyes at her.  “I’m your commanding officer.  You can’t order me to do anything.”</p><p>Jess dismissed that with a wave of her hand.  “Whatever.  Wingman duties are sacred and more important than petty things like rank.  Shower.  Eat.  Sleep.  Now.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hot Garbage

**Author's Note:**

> TOOT TOOT ALL ABOARD THE GOOD SHIP STORMPILOT.
> 
> I have only published one fanfiction before in my life and now this ship has happened to me. This is my life now. I accept it.
> 
> M rating is for later chapters.

“You should get some sleep.”

Poe startled out of his doze, head jerking up from where he’d been leaning it against his and Finn’s linked hands.  Finn was still unconscious in the medical cradle (which made one of them) and Poe genuinely had no idea what time it was, not that he’d admit it.

“I’m fine.”  Shit, even he could hear how terrible his voice sounded.

“Stop lying, dumbass.”  Jessika walked into his field of vision now, wearing pajamas and looking much more comfortable than Poe felt.  “I can always tell if you’re lying.  It’s why I always get all your credits when we play Corellian Snap.”  She flicked him in the ear, and he flinched away (though not so far that he had to let go of Finn’s hand, and he knew she saw that and he knew she was politely not saying anything).

“Listen, Poe.  As your friend and your wingman, it’s my duty to make sure you actually score with the pretty people you’re crushing on--”  Poe opened his mouth to try to protest that  _ it wasn’t like that _ but Jess slapped a hand over it and barreled on “--and currently you both look and smell like hot garbage.  Finn is never going to want to hit that if he wakes up and his first impression is ‘who cut open that tauntaun in here and left it to rot,’ so I am  _ ordering _ you to at least go take a shower and change out of the flight suit you’ve been marinating in for the last thirty-seven hours.”  She stepped back, hands on her hips, and glared at him with her best General Organa impression.

Poe narrowed his eyes at her.  “I’m  _ your _ commanding officer.  You can’t order me to do anything.”

Jess dismissed that with a wave of her hand.  “Whatever.  Wingman duties are sacred and more important than petty things like rank.  Shower.  Eat.  Sleep.  Now.”  Her eyes dropped to his hand, still linked with Finn’s, and her face softened a bit.  “Listen, Poe, from what you’ve told me about Finn he’s a really stand-up guy, right?  Kind?  Self-sacrificing?  Super duper handsome?”

Poe somehow couldn’t take his gaze away from Finn’s face.  “Yeah.  That’s all true.”   _ Especially the super duper handsome part _ he somehow managed not to say out loud.

“Then do you think he’s going to be especially pleased when he wakes up and sees you’ve completely run yourself into the ground?  Or do you think he’s going to be extremely worried and cause a big fuss and try to get out of bed too early to make you take care of yourself and then reinjure himself and then get mad because he hurt himself because you were too stupid to take a nap and end up hating you forever and all of this could have been avoided if only you’d been smart enough to listen to the sage advice of your best wingman?”  She mock swooned.  “Oh no!  I, Poe Dameron, am once again without love because I didn’t listen to the amazing Jessika Pava!  If I could go back in time I would do what she told me!”

“I am 100% sure that scenario will never happen and that is not how I sound.”  Poe summoned up enough energy to glare.

Jess shrugged and leaned against Finn’s medical cradle.  “You’ll have only yourself to blame when it comes to pass and that is exactly how you sound.”  She lifted a foot and poked him in the shoulder with her toes.  “Come on, Dameron, you know I’m right.  If you won’t take care of yourself for yourself, take care of yourself for him.”

Poe scrubbed his hands over his eyes and sighed.  “I know, dammit, you’re right.  I just…  Rey made me promise to keep an eye on him.”  Jess raised an eyebrow at him.  “No, seriously!  She was very clear about it.”  He sat up straighter, his voice taking on clipped accent.  “The General says I have to go find Skywalker, so I’m relying on you to take care of Finn while I’m gone.  He likes holding hands when he’s scared and he likes talking.  If I come back and he breathes a single word that you didn’t treat him well, I will show you exactly how I survived on Jakku for so long.”  

Jess’ gaped at him.  “She gave you the shovel talk?  She literally gave you the shovel talk.  She kicked a Sith Lord’s ass and then she gave  _ you _ the shovel talk.  That is  _ hilarious. _ ”

Poe glared at her.  “It’s not a shovel talk when people aren’t dating, Jess.”

Jess said nothing, just dropped her gaze to his hand, still linked with Finn’s, then arched an eyebrow at him.  Poe sighed.

“I don’t date unconscious people.  He’s just…  I don’t get the impression he’s been on his own a lot, and I think he’s going to be scared when he wakes up and I don’t think…  I just don’t…”

“You don’t want him to wake up alone,” Jess finished for him.  “I get it.  I get it so much that I came here prepared.”  She pulled her hand out of her pajama pocket and waved her ever-present knitting at him.  “You go shower and try to get at least four hours of sleep.  I’ll stay with him.”

Poe can feel his face light up at the offer.  “Really?  You’d do that for me?”

“Of course, dumbass.  I told you wingman duties were sacred.  Now go, because I only managed to hold BB-8 off by promising this would work.  She was five minutes away from bribing a medic droid for some sedatives and dragging your drugged ass back to your bunk himself.”  Her smirk was evil.  “Honestly I kinda wanted to see her try but I thought this was less likely to end in road rash.”  She reached out a hand to him and Poe allowed her to pull him to his feet.

“Thank you.  You’ll comm me if anything changes?”   


“Wingman promise!”  She crossed her flat hands in the shape of an X-Wing (X-Wings admittedly not usually trailing a ball of yarn and a half-finished scarf), then lifted her foot again to prod him out the door.  “Go.  Go!  I will literally kick you in the literal butt if you don’t get moving!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m going.  Thanks, Jess.  I owe you one.”  Poe lingered in the doorway for a moment, looking over Finn (maybe his heart will eventually stop squeezing so damn tight when he looks at him but Poe doubts it) before he finally convinced his feet to carry him away from the infirmary.  Now that he’s moving he could smell himself, and damn, Jessika was right, a shower is not just recommended but  _ necessary. _

Jess waited until his footsteps faded away before settling herself into the chair at Finn’s bedside.  From the little she knew about Finn (mostly the same heartstruck babbling from Poe on multiple occasions reiterated moments before) he found physical contact comforting, but she couldn’t hold his hand and knit at the same time so she toed off her slippers and propped her feet on the cradle, pressing one foot into his leg just above the knee.  That seemed like the most appropriate option for someone who  _ wasn’t _ a lovesick doofus.  She took a second to look him over--breathing steady, pulse normal, his dark skin a healthy color without the gray tinge he’d had when they first brought him in.  A smile played across her lips--Poe was right, he was handsome.  Maybe not  _ super-duper handsome _ but she could see why her CO had fallen so hard for this kid.

“Hello, Finn.  I’m Jessika Pava.  It’s nice to meet you.  I fly with Poe Dameron, and he’s told me a lot about you.  Well, honestly, it’s like the same five things but he repeated himself a lot so I think maybe it just seems like he told me a lot.  Anyway, I’m looking after you while he gets some rest.  I don’t think the First Order really has a tradition of bedtime stories, but my family does so I thought I’d tell you one if that’s okay?”  Jess paused, honestly hoping a little bit that Finn would respond, but he just breathed on, pulse rate monitor sounding steadily alongside the click-clack of her knitting needles, and Jess told herself it was just dumb to expect anything else.

“Well, since you didn’t say no, I’m going to tell you about the Wookie Who Climbed The Mountain Tree.”  Jess paused, remembering how her grandma told the story (just in case Finn could hear what was going on, that happened with comas sometimes, she wanted to make sure she told it right) before she continued, words blending with the rhythm of her knitting needles so that both became part of the tale.

“There once was a Wookie on Kashyyyk, who grew up among the greatest trees in the universe.  The great wroshyr trees were so big that if you stood at the bottom the tops would disappear into the clouds…”

Jess was a damn fine storyteller, she found out.


	2. Sweeping Music and Slow-Motion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessika was in the middle of maybe a slightly inappropriate story (okay, it was really inappropriate, but come on she was running out of bedtime stories and hadn’t had a chance to look up any new ones on the holonet) when she glanced up from crossing a cable to see bewildered brown eyes that were a) totally open and b) looking right at her, right when she got to the part of the story that involved a mission gone wrong, a complete lack of pants all around, and Poe trying to figure out how to make some kind of garment out of fruit.
> 
> Normally Jessika considered herself to be pretty cool and collected under stressful situations (X-Wing pilot, hello) so later she would never admit that her reaction was to yelp, fling her knitting somewhere above her head and accidentally tip her chair over backwards.

It was two days later when Finn finally regained consciousness, and it would have been really romantic, like something from an old holovid, if Poe had been there for it.  There probably would have been sweeping music and slow-motion and maybe even a soft-focus effect around the edges.

Unfortunately Poe was in a mission briefing and Jessika was in the middle of maybe a slightly inappropriate story (okay, it was  _ really _ inappropriate, but  _ come on _ she was running out of bedtime stories and hadn’t had a chance to look up any new ones on the holonet) when she glanced up from crossing a cable to see bewildered brown eyes that were a) totally open and b)  _ looking right at her, _ right when she got to the part of the story that involved a mission gone wrong, a complete lack of pants all around, and Poe trying to figure out how to make some kind of garment out of fruit.

Normally Jessika considered herself to be pretty cool and collected under stressful situations (X-Wing pilot, hello) so later she would never admit that her reaction was to yelp, fling her knitting somewhere above her head and accidentally tip her chair over backwards.  She stayed like that on the ground for a minute, feet in the air, ass over teakettle, and sighed.

“Are you okay?”  Finn’s voice was rusty but that didn’t hide the obvious concern.

“I will pay you fifty credits if you never mention this to Poe.”  Shit!  Poe!  Jess scrambled in her pocket for her comm unit and sent  _ He’s up! _ to Poe’s unit before she performed a textbook backward somersault, stood up, and righted her chair.

Hearing Poe’s name obviously cut through the pleasant painkiller fog for Finn, and he immediately attempted to sit up.  “Poe!  Rey!  Are they safe?  What happened?  Did Starkiller--”  Coughing ensued, which Jess could have warned him about if he’d waited a minute but whatever.  She grabbed the water pak (set up on an end table for a moment just such as this) and held it to Finn’s mouth, sliding an arm carefully behind his shoulder to help him stay somewhat upright.

“Settle down, hotshot.  It’s okay, lean on me for a minute, it’ll be easier.  To answer your questions in order, he’s fine, she’s fine, you took a lightsaber to the back and then Rey beat the shit out of Kylo Ren, Poe got into the Starkiller through the hole you all blew in it and then _he_ blew the shit out of it, and then it blew itself up, and then we got back here and Rey had to leave to go find Luke Skywalker and you were out of it for sixteen days and Poe is in a meeting right now but I commed him and he should be here soon.”  Jessika stopped, replayed everything she’d just said, and added, “Also, I’m Jessika Pava.  I’m a friend of Poe’s and I offered to keep an eye on you when he couldn’t be here, and he has been here a _lot_.  Does that basically cover most of your current questions?”

Finn blinked up at her, frowning slightly.  Goddamn, the kid was even more adorable awake.  Poe was absolutely  _ done for _ .  He looked away, took another sip of water thoughtfully, then squinted back at her.

“Were you saying that Poe was trying to make a skirt out of Berillian tree fruit?  Doesn’t that have  _ spines? _ ”  

Fortunately for Jess, Poe took that moment to burst through the infirmary door, out of breath and clearly having come from the briefing room at an absolute  _ sprint _ .  Jessika watched both their faces light up at the same moment and it was only from the years of practice playing Corellian Snap that she kept the know-it-all smirk off her face.  The two men froze, staring at each other, and Jess was just starting to wonder if she should do something to break the tension (throw a shoe at Poe, maybe?  That should do it) when Poe finally, blessedly, moved.

“Finn!”  Poe practically dove across the room to them, Jessika smoothly moving away from the medical cradle as he crashed into it, grabbing Finn by the shoulder and the back of the neck and leaning their foreheads together.  “Oh, buddy!  It’s so good to see you awake!  You had me worried there!”

“You were worried about me?”  Finn’s hands came up to grab onto Poe’s forearms, clenching for dear life.  Jess caught the water pak as it fell, replacing it silently on the table and collecting her knitting before slipping out the door.  It was about to get reeeeeeeal awkward in that room, and in spite of Jessika’s love of giving Poe Dameron all kinds of shit, she’s willing to pass up ammunition in order to let them have this reunion unobserved.

“Of course I was worried!  You were in pretty rough shape for a while there.  Scared the kriff out of all of us.”  Poe slid his hand from the back of Finn’s neck to his cheek, thumb brushing over the line of his cheekbone.  He pulled back far enough to give Finn a full once-over ( _ don’t stare at his mouth, don’t stare at his mouth _ ), checking to make sure he hadn’t detached any monitoring equipment or torn the skin grafts now covering an impressive amount of his back.  Somehow one of Finn’s hands had drifted to the front of Poe’s shirt, fingers tangled in the collar, and Poe was completely fine with that, oh yes.

“Your friend Jessika said I’ve been asleep for sixteen days.”  Finn’s eyes fluttered shut when Poe stroked his cheekbone again.

“Yeah, you took a hell of a nap.”  Okay, maybe it was time to stop touching Finn’s face.  This was getting weird.  Was it getting weird?  Poe’s hand refused to obey and stayed exactly where it was.

“Jessika also said you waited with me a lot.  I…  Did you?”  Finn opened his eyes, gaze locked on Poe’s, and Poe felt his mouth go dry and his heart speed up to the point that he figured any second a medic droid was going to come over and put  _ him _ under observation.

“Of course I did,” he managed to say.  “You’re my friend.”  And, oh, kriff, that must have been the wrong thing to say because now tears were spilling out of Finn’s eyes and falling down his beautiful face and Poe had to resist the urge to try and kiss them away.  “Hey, hey, Finn, it’s okay, what’s wrong?  Did I say something stupid?”

Finn shook his head, trying and failing to blink away the tears.  “No!  No, it’s not that.  I just…  I never had a friend who’d do that before.”  He shut his eyes and pressed his face a little harder into Poe’s hand.  “I never even had a friend before I met you.  Sorry.  Shit, I’m sorry I’m crying all over you.”

“Hey, Finn, you’ve been through a lot.  It’s okay to cry a little after something like that.”  Poe took a deep breath before he said something really forward like, “I love you,” or “Marry me,” and instead managed to ask, “If I hug you, would that be okay?  Would it be all right on your back?”

Finn nodded and leaned his head forward into Poe’s chest, wrapping his arms around the older man’s waist.  Poe carefully wrapped one arm around Finn’s shoulders (being careful to avoid the injury, he wasn’t an idiot) and stroked Finn’s short-cropped hair gently with his other hand.

They stayed like that for a while, until one of the medics came back in and gently shooed Poe out the door so they could evaluate Finn in private.

(Later, much later, Poe found out that the reason it had taken the medics so long to interrupt was because Jessika had bribed them.  He bought her an entire Tiberian silk-sheep fleece as a thank you.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> She's beauty, she's grace, she's Miss Resistance Base.


	3. Sticks and String

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “‘Sorry, Patient Finn, but you are not recovered to the point that it is medically advisable to discharge you,’” he said in a passable impression of a medic droid, then huffed and crossed his arms. “I’m recovered enough to be bored out of my mind. I’m not used to having this much downtime.”

“You’re not going to convince them to let you out of here early.  They don’t even let Poe out early when he’s being super extra charming.”  Jess plopped down into the visitor’s chair and propped her feet up on Finn’s bed like she did it all the time, probably because she did.  She and Poe were Finn’s most frequent visitors (followed in descending order by BB-8, that other pilot Temmin, and the General), and Finn _was_ grateful for the company.  It was just...  Finn sighed and tried not to sound too petulant.

“‘Sorry, Patient Finn, but you are not recovered to the point that it is medically advisable to discharge you,’” he said in a passable impression of a medic droid, then huffed and crossed his arms.  “I’m recovered enough to be _bored out of my mind._  I’m not used to having this much downtime.”

“Never been injured before?”  

“No.  Jakku was my first mission…”  Finn hesitated, not sure if he should actually mention the next part.  Sometimes when he mentioned the way things had been in the First Order, people (okay, mostly Poe) got really angry and really sad at the same time.  Jessika didn’t seem to do that as much, though, so he felt okay to continue, “And Stormtroopers who are injured as badly as I was aren’t worth the trouble to try and fix.  We…  They…  Were considered expendable.”

Jess’s face didn’t do the angry/sad thing that Poe’s did when Finn said things like that, but her mouth became a hard line and Finn could swear he heard her growl something about “nerf-herders.”  Her fingers spend up, blurring over whatever she did with that string all the time.  Last week she’d been working with some red string, now she was working on something in different shades of blue.  Finn wasn’t sure what it was, but it was oddly comforting to watch her do it and she seemed to enjoy it.  

“What is that?” he asked, pointing at the sticks and string in her hands.

Jessika grinned and held it up, showing him the strip of patterned fabric she was producing.  “It’s going to be a scarf, but right now it’s more like a potholder.”  She handed it to him and he stroked his fingers over it.  It was softer than he expected.

“No, I mean, what’s it called when you make it?”  He squished it a little, then squished it again, finding it surprisingly pleasant to do.

“Oh!  Oh.  Of course.  It’s called knitting.  These are called knitting needles, and this is the yarn.  I use the needles to pull loops of yarn up and through other loops, like this.”  She demonstrated for him, much more slowly than her usual pace.  It made perfect sense from a mechanical standpoint, but…  Finn looked up at her.

“Why do you _do_ it?”  Finn realized too late how dismissive that sounded and opened his mouth to try to clarify, but Jess just grinned and waved him off.

“No worries, Finn, you’re not the only person to ask me that.”  She flopped back into the chair and propped her feet up on the bed again so she could poke him with her foot to emphasize certain parts of their conversation.  Finn was starting to understand her body language and settled back against the pillows propping him up (at least now he was allowed to sit upright) because he could tell this was going to be a longer explanation than he’d expected.

“Do you know about hobbies yet?”  Finn shook his head, and she continued, “Okay, no problem.  A hobby is something you do for personal enjoyment when you’re not working.  I like to knit, but sometimes I bake pastries and cakes if I can get access to an oven and ingredients.  Snap-- that’s Temmin’s nickname--reads cheesy romance novels and plays the sythnophone.  Poe styles his hair and stares at you.”  She charged ahead without allowing Finn time to react to the last one.  “The really short answer is that I knit because I like it, but knitting is actually a way for me to stay connected to where I came from.”  She raised her eyebrows at Finn in that way that meant “bored yet?” but now he wanted to know where she was from and waved her to continue.

“I’m from Dandoran, and in the region where my family lives there’s an important cultural history of knitting.  Dandoran lace scarves are still prized in some parts of the galaxy, did you know that?  When my great-grandma was my age everyone learned how to knit and everyone was always knitting lace for export because it was how you helped support your family.  A true Dandoran lace scarf could be pulled through a standard-size human ring.  Mark of quality, right?”  She paused to grin at him, and he gestured at the scarf in her hands, confused.

“But that’s too big to ever fit through a ring already, isn’t it?”

She nodded and waved a hand expansively.  “Like I said, that was when my great-grandma was my age.  Nowadays Dandoran lace isn’t quite such a common export item.  I know how to make it, of course, and I do try to knit one or two scarves a year and send them home so my mom can sell them, but now I mostly knit because it reminds me of home.  Mom, grandma and great-grandma were all always knitting, so it’s a way to let me feel close to them.”  Her eyes softened a little.  “I also like giving knitted items to the people I care about.  If my sister is wearing a scarf I made, it’s like I’m getting to give her a hug from halfway across the galaxy.”  She drifted off, staring into space with a gentle smile on her face, and Finn wondered who else she was thinking of wearing her knitting.  She blinked and snapped her eyes back to him with a smirk.

“Plus, I fidget like you wouldn’t _believe_ , so it’s either this or jiggle my leg all the time while we’re watching a holovid and if I do that Snap will _snap_ and sit on me to stop me from doing it, and then I can’t see the vid.  It’s better all around this way.”  She winked and returned her attention to her knitting, letting Finn mull things over.  Something about being able to hug people from across the galaxy was sticking in his brain, pinging back and forth, and he kept thinking of Poe, who gave him a name and a jacket and a second chance.  Finn looked up, determined.

“Jess…  Can you teach me to knit?”

Jess grinned at him and pulled out a spare ball of yarn and two needles from another pocket on her jumpsuit.  “I had a feeling you were going to ask.”

When Poe turned up an hour later with a holoreader and some novels (Jess wasn’t the only one who’d planned ahead for a stir-crazy friend) Finn had an inch of passable garter stitch on his needles and Jess was starting to teach him to purl.  She smirked knowingly at Poe before she left and leaned over to whisper in Finn’s ear, “ _His favorite color is red._ ”  Finn blushed and Poe cocked his head at him.

“What’d she say?”  He settled into the bedside chair and since he couldn’t hold Finn’s hand while he was knitting he made a split-second decision and rested a hand on Finn’s knee instead.

Finn shook his head and concentrated on purling.  “Nothing important.  Now let me finish this row, I can’t talk and knit at the same time yet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The knitting traditions I'm ascribing to Dandoran are based on actual Estonian and Irish knitting traditions. 
> 
> If someone ever actually knits you a gift, wear that shit every time you see them because it's made of love and yarn.


	4. Maybe Two Medals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re the only one he feels really comfortable with so far because of that time he totally knight-in-shining-armored you--”
> 
> “That is not how it happened!”
> 
> “--and I think having this shared knowledge will help him feel more connected to the rest of the staff here and that is exactly how it happened and you know it and you know I’m right.” Jess triumphantly dug into her now-lukewarm porridge and heroically didn’t mention Poe’s blush.

“So I’ve been thinking,” Jess started, slinging her leg over the bench in the mess hall to shove in next to Poe.

“Force help us all, then,” Snap muttered from across the table only to immediately be hit in the face with a piece of toast travelling at high velocity.  “Hey!”

“Shut up, Snap, you just got a free extra piece of toast.  Also, my ideas are _always_ great!” Jess shoved an entire toast slice into her mouth and glared at the other pilot, grumpily chewing.

“What about that time you decided to turbo-boost that speeder’s engine and you ended up having to bail out over a lake?”  Poe asked.

"Or that time you said you could drink an entire bottle of Belderonian hot sauce?”  Snap joined in.

“Or that time you decided you needed to knit a sweater for Chewbacca in case he got cold?”

“[She once tried to teach Threepio to dance,]” a third pilot chimed in as he walked past.

“You weren’t even in this conversation, Nien Nunb!  And like I said, my ideas are _always_ great.  They are the best ideas in the history of the universe, and this one doesn’t even involve explosives.”  She waved a spoon around expansively.  “It’s about Finn.”  Jess decided she deserved a medal for not pointing out the way Poe’s face lit up at hearing that name.  Maybe two medals.  She charged on before Poe could get too schmoopy.  “He had a…  Non-existent childhood, basically, right?”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Poe muttered, murder in his eyes.

“Right, and he also didn’t exactly get a super comprehensive education from the First Order.  Like, unbiased.  Or truthful.”

“They’re lying sacks of shit, is what you mean,” Snap chimed in.

“Right.  And he also missed out on a bunch of amazing galactic entertainment since I bet they don’t have holo-theaters, so there are a lot of references just in the popular conscious that people make without even thinking about it that he won’t get, right?”

“Are you going somewhere with this, Pava?” Poe interrupted, face looking super extra grumpy after this rundown of Finn’s deficiencies.

“Yes.  My thinking is that Finn has a lot of down-time right now, and now he has a holo-reader thanks to you.  You think he’s going to have any idea where to even start reading about any of this?  The choice would be overwhelming.  I think we should ask around the base and everyone should recommend two of their favorite books and two of their favorite vids, then we compile the list and see if there are any overlaps, then rank it in order of priority based on how many people recommended a thing, and then we make him the list and give it to him.  You can learn a lot about a person from their favorite book, right, and it’ll give him a familiar point of reference to start with for the rest of the base.”  Jess paused to take a sip of her caf and met Poe’s eyes pointedly.  “You’re the only one he feels really comfortable with so far because of that time he totally knight-in-shining-armored you--”

“That is not how it happened!”

“--and I think having this shared knowledge will help him feel more connected to the rest of the staff here and that is exactly how it happened and you know it and you know I’m right.”  Jess triumphantly dug into her now-lukewarm porridge and heroically didn’t mention Poe’s blush.

“She actually is right this time, Poe,” Snap said reluctantly.

“No, I know,” Poe replied, eyes fixed on Jessika’s face.  “That’s actually a really thoughtful idea, Jess, and I feel like I should have come up with it.  Thank you.”

Jess grinned and shrugged.  “Hey, I like the guy, too.  I just want him to stop looking like a confused bird anytime I mention things like holidays or board games or food that doesn’t taste like an old boot.  Plus I know you’ve been busy setting other stuff up for him.”  Like repairing a certain jacket, and requisitioning Finn some new clothes, and transferring into a double-room, and convincing the General that once Finn was released he should be around familiar people (i.e. Poe).  Jessika says none of this out loud, and probably deserves a special commendation from the General herself for resisting the urge.  Maybe at a special commendation ceremony.

Poe’s comm went off, and when he checked it Jess could tell it was about Finn by the way his whole face lit up.  “He’s up!  I’m going to go check on him before flight training.  See you there?”  Jess nodded and waved him off, while Snap grabbed his elbow.

“Hey, you should take him some porridge and fruit.  I heard the medics talking about transitioning him to solid food in the next couple days, and this stuff at least tastes better than an old boot.”  Snap paused, mentally reviewing the morning’s breakfast options before continuing, “It’s at least like, a new dress shoe.  Maybe one of those fancy shoes for dancing that has the sparkles on it.”

Poe grinned.  “Thanks, buddy.  I think I will.”  He headed off toward the breakfast line, and as soon as he was out of earshot Jess narrowed her eyes at Snap.

“This is your plan to get them together?  Courtship with porridge?”

Snap shrugged.  “They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

“Only because it’s hard to get through the ribcage.”  Snap sputtered through a sip of caf and Jess waved a hand dismissively.  “Joking.  I’m just saying we need to coordinate our efforts.  This is a precision operation and we can’t be working at cross-purposes.”

Snap leaned across the table, lowering his voice.  “What did you have in mind?”

Jess grinned.  “Let me see your collection of romance novels.”


	5. Two Beeps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I still don’t know what you’re saying, BeBe. Can we start slow? One beep for yes, two beeps for no, three beeps for maybe?”
> 
> Beep Beep. Finn narrowed his eyes at the droid. “Are you sassing me?”
> 
> Beepbeepbeep.
> 
> “You are definitely sassing me.”
> 
> Beep.

Finn was almost done with the last of the novels Poe had brought him when BB-8 rolled through the door, beeping at him in what he thought was a happy tone?  He still didn’t speak binary, but he thought he was getting better at interpreting the droid’s “body language,” for lack of a better term.

“Hey, BeBe.  Is it important?  It’s just that Beryl and Tyk’chia have just defeated the evil King Sythrakk and I think they might be finally about to confess their feelings to each other.”

BeBe cooed at him and rolled to the bed before opening a hatch and reaching out their grabbing attachment.  Finn blinked at the droid, and then the attachment, and then carefully reached out his own hand.  BeBe gently clamped on to his hand and burbled at him before looking pointedly (can a droid look pointedly at something?) back at the holoreader in his other hand.

“You want me to finish my book?”

BeBe cooed at him again, and Finn blinked.  Okay.  Holding hands with a droid was somewhat new, but so was basically everything now that he wasn’t with the First Order, so…  He returned to the holo-novel with enthusiasm, burning through the last few pages before dropping the reader on his lap and leaning back with a sigh.  “Finally!” he muttered, turning to look at BeBe.  “They clearly had kissing feelings about each other since page fifteen and it took them the _entire_ book and almost _dying_ before they admitted it.  Complete idiots.”

BeBe squeezed his hand where it was still joined with their grabbing attachment and whirred at him in what was maybe agreement, but also possibly an insult, and Finn sighed.  “I still don’t know what you’re saying, BeBe.  Can we start slow?  One beep for yes, two beeps for no, three beeps for maybe?”

 _Beep Beep._  Finn narrowed his eyes at the droid.  “Are you sassing me?”

_Beepbeepbeep._

“You are definitely sassing me.”

_Beep._

“At least now I know for sure.  Can I have my hand back?”  Seeing BeBe slump a little (how can a droid even slump?  They don’t have shoulders!) Finn rushed on, “Not that I mind!  I appreciate the gesture, it’s just that you’re a little shorter than Poe so I have to slouch and it’s a little uncomfortable, okay?  I just want to stretch my shoulders.”

One beep, and BeBe squeezed his hand one more time before releasing it.  Finn reached both hands high above his head, savoring the increased range of motion and breathing through the uncomfortable stretchy pain in his back.  Medic Car’qossa had assured him that stretching was fine at this point, had encouraged him to move around in any way that wasn’t weight-bearing, and Finn was happy to comply after being forced to lay still for so long.  When he looked back down BeBe’s storage hatch was open, revealing a data chip.

“Is that for me?”   _Beep_.  “Is it from Poe?”  Two beeps, and Finn frowned.  “From Jess?”  Two beeps.  “From the General?”  Two beeps, and Finn frowned harder.  “Who else would be sending me something, BeBe?”

 _Beep_.  Finn raised his eyebrows.  “BeBe?”

 _Beep!_  Finn grinned.  “Is it from you, BeBe?”

One beep, somehow sounding exasperated, and BeBe opened and shut the storage drawer at him a few times.  Finn laughed.  “Sorry I’m so slow on the uptake.  Thank you, Bebe.”  He leaned over and grabbed the data chip, slotting it into his holoreader and scanning the titles contained within.  

Hello, Organic!  Binary Basics for Beginners  
It’s Not Just Beeping: A Guide to Understanding Your Astromech  
The Adventures of Win-302:  Droid Stories for Children  


Finn looked up.  “You want to help me learn binary, BeBe?”

One beep, and the droid rolled forward to bump at his bed.  Finn leaned over to pat them on the head, grin threatening to split his face in half while his eyes felt watery and full (something that seemed to be happening with increasing frequency now that he was part of the Resistance).

“Thank you, BeBe.  This is…  Thanks.”  He paused to wipe at his eyes.  “You know that this means soon you won’t be able to sass me anymore, right?”

Three beeps and the droid somehow looking shifty made Finn burst into laughter.  “You’re right, Bebe, I’m sure you’ll still find a way to sass me somehow.”   _Beep._  Finn threw an empty water pak at the droid, who managed to look extremely offended and let out a string of what were probably expletives, which only set Finn off laughing again.

“Are we interrupting something?”  Finn looks up to find-- _ohshittheGeneral_ \--General Leia standing in the doorway to his room, something like mirth dancing in her dark eyes.  Years of programming kicked in and he snapped to attention, back ramrod straight, eyes straight ahead, shoulders back and down.

“At ease, Finn.”  He shook himself, remembering _again_ that this wasn’t the First Order, and relaxed (but only slightly because the General was still an imposing presence).  She crossed to his bed and tilted his chin up to meet her eyes.  “It’s good to hear you laugh.  Do you have a moment to talk?”

Finn nodded and managed to gesture to the chair next to the bed, mind whirling at the idea that laughter wasn’t just considered non a punishable offense, but in fact something desirable, and even more than that the fact that the _General_ liked hearing it.  He pulled it together enough to settle back into his pillows and face General Leia, who was watching him with a gentle smile.  “If you’ll excuse us, BeBe?” she asked, glancing toward the droid, and BeBe chirruped at her, bumped against Finn’s bed one more time and whirred out the door.

“How are you, Finn?  The medics tell me you’re healing quite well.”

“I’m fine!” Finn answered too quickly, and she raised an eyebrow at him.  He deflated slightly.  “I’m actually bored out of my mind, General.  I…  I’m not used to having downtime.  I want to do something useful.  I’d also like to get out of this bed, but they tell me it’s going to be at least another week before that’s medically advisable.”  His voice unintentionally slipped into an imitation of the medic droid with the last sentence, and the corner of her mouth quirked up.

“So they tell me.”  She paused and fixed him with an appraising stare.  “They also tell me you’re having nightmares.”  The General raised her hand to forestall his response.  “Before I continue, I want to be clear:  Nightmares are nothing to be ashamed of, and they’re to be expected with what you went through, and you’re not the only one who has them, so it’s not a malfunction or a sign of weakness or something to hide.  Do you understand me?”  Her eyes drilled into him, daring him to contradict her.  Mouth dry, palms sweating, he nodded.

“Good.  Now, I actually have a task for you that will be very useful and a great help to our Resistance efforts, but it stands a strong chance of making the nightmares worse.”

“I’ll do it,” Finn broke in, desperate for _anything_ , any task that would make him feel less like a burden.  “Whatever you need, I’ll do it.”

General Leia smiled and put her hand over his.  “I suspected that would be your reaction.  That’s why I want you to meet someone.”  She signaled, and the door opened to admit a creature--an alien--no, that was still the wrong word--a _being_ of a species he didn’t recognize.  Short (under a meter), covered in mottled brown and green fur, with round cheeks, large dark eyes, and a giant fluffy tail, he vaguely recalled seeing them around the medical bay, but they didn’t wear the uniform of a medic.  Honestly, they weren’t wearing much of a uniform at all, basically just a vest, but he supposed being covered in fur meant not a lot was necessary in the way of clothes.  He had a brief flash of Chewbacca complaining about the cold and pushed the memory away, connected as it was to other, worse memories.

“Finn, this is Lieutenant Parrvox.  She’s the base therapist.”  Lt. Parrvox crossed to the bed and held out her hand, and Finn shook it curiously.  Parrvox was so soft!  She smiled at him and flicked her ears forward.

“It’s nice to meet you, Finn.  I’ve heard a lot about you.”  Her voice was surprisingly rumbly for such a small creature.  Finn liked it.  “Would you mind if I joined you on the bed?  Conversations work a bit better if we’re all at the same eye level.”  Finn scooted to the side to make room for her, and she nimbly leapt up to sit near his feet and wrapped her tail around herself like a giant fluffy scarf.

Finn blinked at the Lieutenant, looking at him expectantly, and turned back to General Leia who was watching with that small smile again.  He shook his head slightly.  “I don’t understand?  Is the Lieutenant part of the task you have for me?”

Leia shook her head.  “Not the task itself, more part of the aftermath.  Finn, we need to know everything you know about the First Order.  Everything--how you were raised, training techniques, other Stormtroopers you knew, officers you may have seen once or twice from across the room.  There’s no telling what may become vital information, and you’re the best source we’ve had in a long while.  However, we have strong reason to believe that asking you to tell us all of that will draw up some extremely traumatic memories and possibly lead to serious mental health issues, which is where Lt. Parrvox comes in.”

The Lieutenant nodded as the General gestured to her and added, “Your debriefing sessions with General Leia and her staff will be immediately followed by a therapy session with me.  The goal will be to work through any negative emotional repercussions brought up in the sessions with the General and to give you some tools and healthy coping mechanisms for dealing with things like this in the future.”

They both paused and looked at Finn expectantly, and he got the feeling he was supposed to say something here but honestly the whole conversation confused the hell out of him.  Not being sure what was expected of him, he decided to go with the truth.

“I don’t really understand what you’re talking about.  Medic Car’qossa was talking about starting my physical therapy soon.  Is Lt. Parrvox going to be assisting with that, or…  What do you mean by ‘negative emotional repercussions’?”   _And why would you care about me having them?_ he managed not to say out loud.

Parrvox smiled and flicked her tail.  “I won’t be helping with your physical therapy, Finn, though if it helps this make sense, you can think of our sessions as being physical therapy for your mind and emotions.”

“We care about our recruits' mental health as well as physical health here,” General Leia added.  “I am given to understand that that’s not how it went in the First Order, but we consider it important to help people shoulder the burdens that come with completing dangerous missions.”

“Our sessions will mostly consist of talking, with me helping you find healthy ways to navigate things like your nightmares, panic attacks, social anxiety, and anything else that comes up.”  Lt. Parrvox paused to smile again, and flicked her tail into Finn’s lap.  “You’ll also be allowed to stroke my tail if you like.  I understand it’s very comforting to humans and it can be very helpful to have a pleasant physical connection when doing this kind of work.”

Finn reached out a hesitant hand and she nodded her permission before he gently let it sink into the softest thing he had ever felt oh wow her tail was so soft he totally understood why people liked to pet it.  He sat there for a moment, running his fingers through her fur and let his mind turn over the idea that the mind could be hurt like the body, and healed like the body, and that now he was around people who actually cared about both, and valued him for more than just what use he could be.  He wasn’t sure how long he was lost in his own thoughts before he realized the General was still looking at him expectantly.  “Sorry!  I--”

“It’s fine, Finn.  It’s a lot to take in, and the Lieutenant is _very_ soft.”  She smiled at him, and he could sense both her worry and her caring.  “Do you understand what we’re asking of you?  Do you have any questions?”

His eyes were wet when he met hers but his voice was steady.  “When do we start?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mental health care exists and is important in space, okay?!
> 
> Lt. Parrvox is basically a three-foot-tall quokka with a super fluffy lemur tail, because if I had a therapist that is what I would want her to look like. If you've never seen a quokka, do yourself a favor and google it.


	6. Cake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “PARTY!”
> 
> Finn jerked awake, heart racing as something hit him in the stomach. “Wha--” He blinked and investigated the offending object, which appeared to be a bag full of… Sandwiches?
> 
> “I said PARTY!” Now he recognized Jess’ voice. She waved a bottle at him. “We’re here to celebrate Rey getting back in touch and Skywalker not being dead!”

Rey called the next day

The base went  _ huttshit _ .  The General had to threaten to physically remove people from the comm room  _ herself _ before it cleared up enough for anyone to actually hear Rey talk.  Between debriefings and mission updates (and the terrible connection--an unpleasant side effect of the scrambling and encryption that made the transmission untraceable) it was two hours before the door to the medbay opened and General Leia walked in.

“General!”  Finn blurted, resisting the urge to leap out of bed.  “Rey!  How is she?  Is she all right?  Did she find Skywalker?  Is he alive?  Did she--”

“Finn.”  Leia’s voice cut through his babbling like a knife, and he shut his mouth with a click.  “I could answer all those questions secondhand, but I think you’d probably rather hear them from the source.”  She held out her hand and clicked on a holocomm unit, and Rey’s face and shoulders flickered into view.  Even blue and slightly staticky he could see her face light up when she spotted him.

“Finn!”

“Rey!”

“How are you--”

“How are you healing--”

“I suggest,” Leia cut in, smiling fondly at both of them, “That you try taking turns when you talk.  It might be more efficient.”  She handed the holocomm to Finn and squeezed his shoulder.  “You should have about twenty minutes left before the transmission drops.  Make the most of it.”  She politely ignored him wiping at his eyes as she exited, the door whooshing shut behind her.  Finn looked up to find Rey grinning at him, tilting her head to the side in understanding.

“She’s really something, isn’t she?  I feel like if I’m half that kind and half that terrifying when I’m her age, I’ll have done all right.”  She paused and searched his face.  “Are you all right, Finn?  I’m so sorry I had to leave you.”

Finn grinned.  “Well, I think you had a  _ pretty good excuse _ , tracking down the last Jedi so you can become the next Jedi, which is  _ so cool _ , by the way, that I’m going to get to be friends with a Jedi.  Like, the coolest.”

Rey rolled her eyes.  “It’s going to be a long time before I get to do anything that qualifies as ‘cool.’  Right now Master Luke has me alternating between meditating and working out.  It’s kind of terrible, except for the part where I’m doing it on a beautiful green island surrounded by more water than I’ve ever seen in one place before, so that’s okay, I suppose.  What about you?”  Her eyes narrowed.  “Has Poe been taking good care of you?  I left very specific instructions.”

Finn flushed and hoped it wasn’t visible over the holocomm.  “Poe is great!  Poe is better than great!  He watched me while I was sleeping and he holds my hand a lot and he brought me a bunch of holonovels so I wouldn’t get bored and sometimes he hugs me and he smells really good and  _ why am I telling you all this out loud _ .”  He slapped a hand over his mouth, mortified, as Rey valiantly managed not to giggle.  “I swear I talk to other people, too,” he said through his hand.  “I just…  Poe is  _ Poe _ .”

Rey nodded solemnly.  “I understand.  His hair is ridiculous.”

“It’s  _ so _ ridiculous!  It looks perfect  _ all the time _ .  One time he came in here with his flight helmet still on and when he took it off his hair was still  _ perfect _ .  It’s not fair, Rey.  No one could expect to be immune to that.”  He flopped back against his pillows and stared up at the ceiling.  “Jess says it’s witchcraft, and I’m not totally sure what that means but I think it’s probably true.”

“Jess?”

Poe sat back up immediately.  “Oh, yeah!  Jessika Pava!  She’s another pilot and a friend of Poe’s.  She was there when I woke up.  She’s  _ great _ , Rey, I think you’d like her.  She’s teaching me to knit!  Hold on!”  He scrambled on the bedside table, grabbing his halfway-completed scarf and turning back to the holo of Rey.  “See?”

Rey’s face lit up.  “That’s great, Finn!  Can you make me something?  It’s so damp here that it feels colder than night on Jakku, even though I know logically it’s probably actually warmer.”

“Absolutely!  What color?”

Twenty minutes went by too quickly, but when the holo flickered off Finn’s smile stuck around.

\--

“PARTY!”

Finn jerked awake, heart racing as something hit him in the stomach.  “Wha--”  He blinked and investigated the offending object, which appeared to be a bag full of…  Sandwiches?

“I said PARTY!”  Now he recognized Jess’ voice.  She waved a bottle at him.  “We’re here to celebrate Rey getting back in touch and Skywalker not being dead!”

“We?”

“Yeah, buddy!” Poe said, carefully balancing a plate full of some kind of baked goods as he came through the door.  “It seemed like as good an excuse as any.”

“Plus Testor over there was mad you’d never gotten to eat a cake, so she kinda insisted.”  This was from Snap, who was carrying the cake in question.

Finn wasn’t sure how parties worked but he was pretty sure they were not supposed to happen in the med bay.  “Won’t we get in trouble?”

Jess grinned.  “Hey!  Car’qossa!” she called, ignoring Finn’s attempts to shush her.  “You got a problem with us stuffing our faces and playing some Corellian Snap with Finn, here?”

Car’qossa rolled all three of her eyes and stalked over to them.  She planted herself, hands on her hips, and glared at them so long that Finn was sure they were all going to be reported for reconditioning any moment.

“The patient isn’t allowed to have any of that hooch.  It’ll interfere with his medication.”

Jess winked at Finn.  “Agreed and understood.”

“You get two hours, then I have to boot you.”

“Gotcha.”

“And I need two of those cream buns and one slice of that cake.”  Car’qossa paused, considering.  “A  _ big _ slice.”

Smugness radiated off Jessika in  _ waves _ .  “You heard the lady, Snap.”

Bribe handled, Jess insisted that Poe and Finn team up for the first few hands for Corellian Snap, “Until you get the hang of it, Finn.”  Poe felt like he really should be glaring at her for this obvious subterfuge, but crammed next to Finn at the head of the bed, one arm around Finn’s shoulders while he used the other one to point out important card suits, he somehow couldn’t find it in himself to be mad.

He also couldn’t find it in himself to play a good hand of Corellian Snap.  He was a little  _ distracted _ , okay, especially when Finn shifted and their legs pushed a little further together and even with the multiple layers of blanket and pants between them he could feel the warmth of Finn’s body and Finn bit his lower lip in concentration and Poe somehow couldn’t take his eyes away for a minute.  He looked up in time to see Jess seeing him and glowered at her.  She smiled at him sweetly, then promptly won the round.

“Dammit, Pava!  You’re a menace!” Snap threw his cards at her in a huff.  “Take everything I have, why don’t you.”

“What can I say?  I’m the best card-player in the Resistance.  And also the best baker.  Since I’ve kicked all your asses, I vote we take a minute so I can celebrate with cake and you can console yourselves with cake.”  Jess didn’t wait for agreement before distributing slices, leaving the others to gather the cards into some semblance of order.

Finn took a bite and it was…  Sweet, and fruity, and like bread but softer than bread, and it tasted warm and happy and like love and home and a lot of things he didn’t have words for.  He looked up to see Jess, Snap, and Poe all smiling at him.  “Do you like it?” Jess asked.

Finn burst into tears.

“Aww, shit, I knew I overbaked it by a couple minutes but I didn’t think it was that bad!  I thought the cream frosting would make up for it!” Jess babbled, distraught.  Snap patted her on the shoulder.  “I don’t think this is because of your terrible cake, Testor.”

“It’s not,” Finn managed from somewhere in the vicinity of Poe’s chest, and he wasn’t super sure how he ended up there, encircled in the pilot’s arms while Poe murmured reassuring things, but he wasn’t complaining.  Listening to Poe’s heartbeat, he took deep, careful breaths.  Five counts in, four counts out.  He blinked a few times and scrubbed his face with his hand before sitting up a little straighter so he could turn his head to look at Jess.  (He did not sit up so far that Poe had to let go, and he also didn’t remove his head from Poe’s shoulder.  He would think about that later.)

“I…  That just brought up a lot of emotions at once.  Lt. Parrvox says that’s pretty normal at this stage.”  Finn smiled at her.  “Don’t worry, I’m totally going to eat the rest of it.  It’s  _ delicious _ , even if you did overbake it.”

Jess grinned and batted at his arm.  “Good, and shut up, you didn’t even know it was overbaked until I said so.”

“I still don’t know it’s overbaked, honestly.”  Finn realized he was going to have to choose between keeping his head on Poe’s shoulder and eating cake, and while it was a difficult decision, he sat up enough to recover his plate from Snap and take another bite.  Poe’s hand stayed around his shoulders, and if Finn was curled into Poe’s side a little tighter than before no one mentioned it.  They ate cake in relative silence for a moment (Finn might have been making little pleased noises with every bite) when Jess spoke.

“Hey, Dameron, why aren’t you eating my goddamn delicious cake?”

Poe shrugged.  “It’s awkward to eat with one hand.  I’ll have some later.”

Finn frowned.  Everyone should get to experience this cake now instead of later, but he also didn’t want Poe to take his arm away.  Before he thought too much about it he’d filled his fork with cake and offered it to Poe.  “Cake?” he asked redundantly.

Poe’s eyes flicked from his face to the cake and back several times in rapid succession.  “It’s okay, Finn.  It’s your first cake, you should have all of it.”

“I can just have a second slice.  Come on!  It’s really good!”  Finn beamed up at him, and Poe finally nodded and opened his mouth, and oh.  Finn was very aware of his heartbeat as Poe carefully leaned forward and closed his mouth around the forkfull of cake, lips pulling across the tines of the fork as he slid back, and Finn knew he was staring at Poe’s mouth but he couldn’t stop as Poe’s eyes fluttered shut as he savored the flavor, and then he was swallowing and his tongue flicked out across his lips to remove any stray icing and Finn felt like he was drowning and also might explode at any second and he wasn’t sure what to do but he knew he wanted to do  _ something _ \--

“So you’re seeing Parrvox?”  Snap practically shouted.  “That’s great!  How do you like it so far?  How do you do the tail?  Hey!”  The last was addressed to Jessika in response to her poking him with a fork.

Finn blinked, finally dragging his eyes away from Poe.  “What?” he asked, not having heard a word.

“The tail!”  Snap repeated.  “It’s great!  Best therapist in the business thanks to that thing.  How do you do the tail?”

Finn looked between Snap and Jess, bewildered.  “I’ve only had the one session, but she just puts it in my lap and I pet it.  There’s more than one way?”

All three pilots nodded.  

“Usually she sits on the chair above me and just wraps it around me like a hug, but sometimes if it’s a really bad session she’ll get on the couch with me and let me be the big spoon.  It’s seriously the greatest,” Jess said dreamily, taking another bite of her cake.

“I like to just wear her across my shoulders, like a scarf,” Snap added, gesturing to demonstrate.

“She’ll curl it up and let me use it like a pillow,” Poe finished.  “It’s great except sometimes I forget and roll over face-down and then I get a nose full of fur.”

Finn blinked at the three of them.  “You…  You all do therapy, too?”

“Yes!”

“Of course!”

“Who wouldn’t?”

Finn’s bewilderment must have shown on his face because Poe tightened the arm around his shoulders in a comforting squeeze and Jess leaned over to put her hand on his knee.  All he could ask was, “ _ Why _ ?”  The unspoken  _ You’re better than me _ somehow hung in the air.

“Well, I had a Dark Jedi dig through my brain, for one.”

“I had a partner die in front of me on a mission,” Jess said.  “It was…  An issue.”

“I crash-landed on the way back from a mission one time and got to deal with the amazing experience of feeling my X-Wing burning all around me.  I do not recommend it.”  Snap stuffed a bite of cake into his mouth, grimacing at the memory.

“Plus, sometimes you just have weird brain shit you were born with, and you need therapy and medication to help balance that out.”  Jess raised her voice to shout across the room.  “Hey, Car’qossa!  What’s your weird brain shit?”

“Generalized anxiety disorder!” came the responding exasperated shout.

“And how are your brain pills working for you?”

“Quite well, thank you!  We’ve settled on a good dosage.  Also, the cake is delicious!”

Reeling from all this new information, Finn turned his head and locked eyes with Poe.  The piloot smiled at him gently, eyes soft.  “Finn, we’ve all seen some shit,” he said.  “It’s stupid to try and face that kind of thing on your own when you don’t have to.”  He pulled Finn closer and leaned their foreheads together, just for a moment, for too long and somehow not long enough. 

“And you don’t have to,” Snap added.

“Not while we’re around,” Jess finished, handing him a cream bun.  “Now try this, I want to see if  _ all _ my baking is good enough to make you cry.”

Finn threw a pillow at her.

(The cream bun didn’t actually make him cry, but it was  _ very _ good.)

(Jessika deserved five medals and a  _ sash _ for not mentioning what Poe’s face looked like while he watching Finn eat a cream bun.  Operation Messy Baked Goods was clearly a resounding success.)


	7. Heard You Talkin' Shit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “--wasting a bed on that kriffing Stormtrooper like he’s not going to turn on us first chance he gets--”
> 
> Poe pushed to his feet, face like a storm, but Jess got there first. She surged forward, pushing off Snap’s shoulder to get onto the table, then one compact and powerful leg propelling her off the table and into a flying tackle. She collided with Intelligence Analyst First Class Taylor and they both hit the floor. By the time his dishes had clattered to a stop, Jess had him in an arm lock, her free hand fisted in his hair as she pinned him face-down to the floor. The mess hall was dead silent when she growled, “Heard you talking shit, Taylor.”

Jess woke up the next morning with a hangover, which was _completely_ ridiculous since she’d only had maybe like two drinks during their cards-and-cake party in the med bay, but Past Jess, having _only_ had two drinks, had failed to remember that two drinks in combination with a bunch of cake and three cream buns would still lead to dehydration and therefore had also failed to remember to drink a glass of water before she went to bed.  Present Jess cursed Past Jess.  Present Jess also took a moment to just curse in general.

Later, Jess felt like the hangover really had something to do with how that morning turned out.

Head pounding, cranky as kriff, tray full of fried tubers and crispy meat, she’d shoved in between Snap and Poe and had just taken a drink of her caf when she heard it.

“--wasting a bed on that kriffing Stormtrooper like he’s not going to turn on us first chance he gets--”

Poe pushed to his feet, face like a storm, but Jess got there first.  She surged forward, pushing off Snap’s shoulder to get onto the table, then one compact and powerful leg propelling her off the table and into a flying tackle.  She collided with Intelligence Analyst First Class Taylor and they both hit the floor.  By the time his dishes had clattered to a stop, Jess had him in an arm lock, her free hand fisted in his hair as she pinned him face-down to the floor.  The mess hall was dead silent when she growled, “Heard you talking shit, Taylor.”

“What the kriff, Pava?!  I’ll--”

“Shut your shit-ass mouth, Taylor.  And sit the hell down, Dameron!  I do not need assistance!”  Jess yanked Taylor’s hair, pulling his head back at an uncomfortable angle.  “So you don’t think we should be providing medical treatment to Finn, saver of Poe Dameron’s life and a hero of the Battle of Starkiller Base?  What an interesting opinion.  And what experience is it based on?”

“I’ll have you demoted--”

Jess twisted his arm and Taylor stopped talking with a whimper.  “The thing is, _Analyst First Class Taylor_ , is that I don’t remember seeing you with boots on the ground on Starkiller Base.  I don’t remember you infiltrating the First Order with a team of three people.  I don’t remember you shutting off the shields so we had any kind of desperate, bare-ass chance at victory.  And I _really_ don’t remember you taking a lightsaber to the back trying to take down Kylo Ren with no blade training.  So that means you should shut the _kriff_ up about shit you don’t know.”

“He’s a _Stormtrooper_ ,” Taylor managed to hiss.

“And he’s also my friend!” Jess shouted into the silent mess hall.  “And if I hear _anyone_ spreading this kind of _huttshit_ about him?  Or even just treating him with less than absolute kindness?  They will get my boot so far up their ass they’ll be able to _taste leather_ .  Do you _understand me_ , Analyst First Class Taylor?”  Taylor was silent.  Jess twisted the hand that was in his hair.  “I said _do you understand me, Analyst First Class Taylor_?”

“Yes,” he muttered.  Jess bared her teeth at him.  “Loud enough for the whole class, Taylor.”

“Yes!” he snapped, and she pushed his face into the ground, released his hair and arm, and backed out of arm’s reach.  He rolled over and glared up at her, hissing, “I won’t forget this, Pava.”

“Neither will I, _Taylor_ ,” she snarled.  Jess turned on her heel and stalked out of the mess hall, people scattering in the face of her seething rage.  She ended up in the main hangar under her X-Wing before the adrenaline faded, and she collapsed onto her toolbox, holding her head in her hands and trying to stop shaking.   _Deep breaths, Pava, deep breaths._

“Hey.”  She looked up at Poe.  He held out the tray of her forgotten breakfast.  “I hear scaring the shit out of dumb assholes burns a lot of calories.  You should make sure you get enough protein.”

“Did you bring the--”

He held out her mug of caf with his other hand, and she accepted both with a groan.  “You are a king among men, Poe.”  He sat next to her as she shoveled fried tubers into her mouth and washed them down with a huge swallow of caf.  She sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder for a moment.  “Sorry I beat you to defending Finn’s honor.”

“No, no, don’t apologize.  You were much scarier than I think I would have been, and it probably worked better coming from you since I…  Finn is…”  Poe trailed off, and Jess elbowed him in the ribs lightly.

“Since you’re totally head-over-heels bonkers in love with him and everyone knows it?”  

Poe groaned and tried to cover his blush by burying his face in his hands, but it didn’t work.  When he spoke it was slightly muffled.  “I wouldn’t have put it like that, but yes.  Taylor probably thinks Finn brainwashed me somehow, like with his incredibly good looks, but since you’re immune…”

“My rage is pure and untainted by the sexy, seductive charms of that evil Stormtrooper who doesn’t even know how flirting works but somehow has you wrapped around his finger, even though if things with fingers were actually happening you would be way less tense about everything.”  She patted his shoulder as he groaned again.  “Dude, no, I’m happy for you.  You just know I’m gonna give you shit until you actually smush your face together with his face.”

BB-8’s arrival saved Poe from having to respond.  Jess sighed as the droid chirped that the General wanted to see them and crammed down the rest of her breakfast before she stood.  “Time to face the music, I guess.”

Poe clapped her on the shoulder.  “I’ll back you up.  Maybe she’ll go easy on you since Taylor is such a dipshit.”

“I have no regrets.  About anything, ever.  Lead on, BeBe!”  Jess sounded more confident than she actually felt, but it was the truth.  Given the chance she would do it over exactly the same, except maybe she would throw a mug of caf at Taylor before she tackled him.

General Leia glanced up from the holo display when they walked into the war room.  “Ah, good.  We can get started.  Jessika--”

“I’m not apologizing to him!” Jess blurted out, heart pounding.  “I’ll submit myself to any disciplinary action you want to take but I will not apologize for what I did to Taylor.”

The General stood up straight, her mouth quirking up at the corners.  “Ah, yes.  I heard about the altercation in the mess hall earlier.  From Taylor.  At length.  He had many opinions about what disciplinary actions should be taken.”  She paused, and Jess held her breath.  “Then I pointed out that Finn was being treated under _my_ orders, and that he went to Starkiller under _my_ orders, and that he’s to be treated as a full member of the Resistance under _my_ orders.”  There was definitely an evil smile on the General’s face now.  “Once I pointed out that his actions amounted to insubordination, Taylor suddenly decided that he needed to be elsewhere.  He left in quite a hurry.”

Jess let out the breath she’d been holding.  “So..  What happens to me?”

The General fixed her with a piercing stare.  “Professionally, I am obligated to tell you that in the future, you are to find ways to result interpersonal disputes that don’t involve physically attacking another Resistance officer.  Personally?  Good job.”  She waved a hand as Jess and Poe goggled at her, dismissing the issue entirely.  “That’s completely unrelated to why I called you here.  We have a mission for you.”

Jess and Poe moved forward as one to listen to the General’s briefing, all business now.  It was a straightforward supply run, but with the First Order still reeling and the D’Qar base location compromised it came with a higher risk than normal of running into trouble.  Poe and Jess were to accompany the freighter to a nearby independant system and make sure everyone came back in one piece.

“You leave in one hour,” General Leia said.  “Go take care of your pre-flight business.”  The latter she directed significantly to Poe, and she squeezed his shoulder gently.  “Dismissed.”

In the corridor outside, Jess and Poe looked at each other, BB-8 wheeling in excited circles around them.

“Finn?

“Finn.”

“Is it done?”

“Yeah, BeBe finished the sorting algorithm this morning.”

“Awesome.”

They high-fived without looking, turning the corner toward the medbay and startling a passing droid in the process (BeBe told the droid to get used to it).  Poe paused outside the medbay door to run his hands through his hair.  He glanced at Jess, who raised her eyebrow at him.  “You look fine, stupid.  You’re not the one who tackled an analyst this morning, remember?”  He made a face and gave her a shove before heading inside.

“Finn, my buddy!”

The smile on Finn’s face when he looked up at Poe was so bright Jess thought _she_ might swoon a little.  How could Poe look at _that face_ all the damn time and not smooch it?  Idiots.  (Okay, maybe she felt a little heart squeeze when she saw that Finn was still working on knitting that scarf, but that was a perfectly normal reaction to seeing someone enjoy a hobby that you introduced them to, especially when it’s a hobby where most people call you “grandma” right up until it snows and they need a hat.)

“Poe!  Jess!  They’re gonna start my physical therapy today!  It’s gonna be great!”  Finn beamed at them, smile not faltering a bit when Car’qossa muttered “You mean it’s gonna hurt like a bitch,” and grumped back off to her station on the other side of the medbay.

“That _is_ great, buddy!  You’ll be up and around in no time!”  Poe went in for a hug, and if it lingered a bit longer than maybe was strictly platonic no one said anything.  Jessika shared a sideways glances with BB-8, and she swore if droids could roll their eyes BeBe would be doing it right now.  BeBe chirped at Poe, reminding him that they had a mission and also a gift so maybe he should either let go of Friend-Finn or put their mouths together like in those romance holos.  Poe choked slightly and tried not to blush as he pulled out of the hug.  He stayed sitting on the edge of the bed, though.

“Hey, Finn, we’d love to come cheer you on for physical therapy today, but it turns out we have a mission.  It’s--”

“Super important.  Like, top secret, really dashing daredevil stuff,” Jess cut in, deadpan.  “The kind of thing where if you hear about it later you’re super impressed, like wow, people actually achieve those feats of flying?”  Poe glared and Finn frowned.  She kept her face serious for juuust long enough that it got weird, then grinned and shook her head.  “Naw, I’m shitting you.  It’s a supply mission.”

“Totally normal,” Poe jumped in.  “We’re escorting the freighter more as a precaution than anything.”

“It’s basically just a week-long grocery trip.  Do you want us to pick you up anything at the store?  Some blue milk?”  Jess plopped herself down on the other side of the bed and pretended like she was going to write a list.

“You’ll be gone a whole _week_?” Finn asked plaintively, grabbing Poe’s hand without thinking about it.  Poe, for his part, interlaced their fingers like it was instinct.  Jess continued her saintly effort of not pointing this out.

“Yeah, which is why it was handy that we got this done for you today!” Poe said, digging in his pocket for the data chip.  It wasn’t in the first pocket, or the second one, and it was awkward trying to find it with only one hand but he also didn’t want to let go of Finn.  Fortunately BB-8 reminded him that he never had it in the first place, and Jess leaned down to grab the chip out of BeBe’s storage drawer and drop it into Finn’s free hand.

“Gee, thanks, a data chip,” Finn deadpanned.  “It’s just what I always wanted.”

Poe snorted and Jess knocked her shoulder against Finn’s.  “It’s what’s inside that counts, Finn,” she said dramatically.  “Namely, the favorite books and vids of everyone on the base--”

“Sorted by popularity--”  Poe continued.

“And labeled with the name of who recommended them so that when you get out of here you have something in common with everyone,” Jess jumped back in.  “We also put some good galactic history books on there and some great documentaries about our home planets!”

“We figured the First Order probably didn’t have the most unbiased educational system,” Poe said with a smile, squeezing Finn’s hand.  “We wanted to get you all caught up.”

Finn’s grin was threatening to split his face in half, but he found himself incapable of toning it down.  “This is _amazing_ ,” he blurted.  “Thank you so much!”

Poe shrugged.  “You should thank Jess.  It was all her idea.”

Jess preened.  “What can I say?  I’m the best.”  Poe shoved her off the bed.  “Hey!” she yelped from the floor, “We have a mission, asshole!  Don’t damage the goods!”

“You’re fine, Testor,” Poe snarked, then his face softened as he looked at Finn.  “She’s right, though.  We should go finish our flight prep.”

Finn yanked him in for a tight hug before Poe had a chance to react.  “Be careful, okay?” he murmured against Poe’s chest.  “Don’t get hurt.”

Poe rested his cheek against Finn’s head and squeezed him.  “I’ll be fine.  Best pilot in the Resistance, remember?”  He steadfastly ignored Jess standing just in his field of vision, mouthing _Just kiss him already!_ and making increasingly obscene hand gestures.   _Shut up!_ he mouthed back as Finn slowly released the hug.  “I’ll see you when I get back.  Kick ass on your physical therapy, okay, buddy?”   _Get to the door, you have to get out of the door before you do something stupid, Dameron, this is not the time to propose_.  BB-8 chirped something about goodbye kisses and goddamn it he was going to have to have a talk with that droid.

“I will!”  Finn grinned.  “By the time you get back I intend to be able to kick your butt if you end up getting yourself hurt.”

Poe chuckled.  “I’ll hold you to that, kid!” he shot back as the medbay door shut behind him, BeBe cooing a goodbye as well.

Jess poked Finn in the shoulder.  “Car’qossa isn’t lying.  Physical therapy is gonna hurt like a bitch.”

He shrugged.  “I know.  I’ve had a lot of training to withstand pain.  I’ll be fine.”  He held out his arms.  “Can I hug you, too, before you go?”

Jess laughed.  “Of course, doofus.  You don’t even have to ask.”  As she wrapped her arms around him, she reconsidered.  “Unless I’m currently injured, carrying something, or really sweaty.   In those cases you should probably ask before you hug me.”

“Understood,” he said into her shoulder, where he couldn’t see her smirk.

“Hey, Finn?”

“Yes?”

“I put some extra notes onto that datapad about which books you should consider reading first.”  She pulled out of the hug, mirth dancing in her eyes.  “I think you’ll find them very informative.”

Finn wasn’t sure what was so funny about books, but he nodded.  “Okay, thanks, I’ll check it.”  Jess gave his arm one last squeeze and headed for the door.

“Jess?”  She paused and looked back at him.  “Take care of Poe for me?”

“Of course,” came her response.  “I’m the best goddamn wingman in the Resistance.  Enjoy the books!”  Jess winked at him, and then the door was whooshing shut behind her and Finn was alone.  He allowed his worries and anxieties to pour over him for a moment (Parrvox said he should let his emotions happen rather than trying to fight them) before he took a deep breath, shook himself, and plugged the new data chip into his holo-reader.  He scrolled until he he saw a book with a note from Jess.   _Hey, Finn!  I hope this helps answer some questions for you._  He opened it up without thinking and then glanced at the title.

_Love in Space: A Factual Romp Through Galactic Human Sexuality._

Finn blushed, glanced around the medbay, then kept reading.  Oh.   _Oh._  This explained a _lot_.

(His pants were suddenly a little too tight, but then he came to the part of the book that explained that, too.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Book is something like a combination of The Joy of Sex and Our Bodies Ourselves, but like... IN SPACE.


	8. It's Perfectly Normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn tried to figure out the best way to phrase the issue. Then he tried to come up with an acceptable way to phrase the issue. Then, finally, he just blurted, “I’ve been having erections.”

It was three days since Poe and Jessika left on their mission.  Between the physical therapy (it did, indeed, hurt like a bitch), debriefings with the General (stressful), and therapy sessions with Lt. Parrvox (stressful but in a good way), Finn had much less time to read than he’d had the previous week.  He’d still managed to find the time to finish and then re-read The Book that Jessika had recommended.  He felt like the flush on his cheeks was going to be permanent, and he spooked and hid it under a pillow every time the med droids went by (yes, the book said everything was perfectly natural and nothing to be embarrassed about, _but still_ ).  It was, indeed, _very informative._   Jess had certainly not been lying about that, but it didn’t answer _every_ question, and Finn definitely wanted to have a few things sorted out _before_ Poe got back.  He’d been giving it a lot of thought, and now it was time to put his plan into action.

Very slow action.  Technically he wasn’t supposed to be walking long distances unassisted yet (he had a wheelchair for when he needed to go further than the refresher), but he figured that leaning against the medbay wall for the shuffle to his destination counted as “assisted” walking, and he also figured that the other side of the medbay didn’t count as “long distance.”  Halfway there he was starting to regret his decision, but if he gave up now then the First Order would win so he kept shuffling to his goal:  Medic Car’qossa’s desk.

He was still a good twenty feet away when she noticed him.  Her brow ridge quirked, and she leaned back in her chair to stare flatly at him as he inched nearer.  Finn knew that look at this point--it was her “You did this to yourself, now deal with the consequences,” look.  He’d seen it directed at Pava when she asked for a hangover treatment, at Poe when he’d been too enthusiastically telling a story and tripped over a chair, and once at a young recruit whose name he didn’t know who had apparently twisted an ankle doing some kind of dare.  Finn also knew, at this point, that in spite of her impressive, three-eyed glare, Car’qossa was actually an excellent, compassionate medic, and he was pretty sure that if he fell on his ass she’d catch him before he hit the ground.  She quirked her brow ridge a bit further, and he revised his estimate to about 60% sure she’d catch him.

“Finn,” she acknowledged when he finally slumped against the front of her desk, breathing heavily.  “Can I help you?”  She pushed a water pak across the desk to him, and he accepted it gratefully.

“I wanted to talk to you?”  Even he could hear the hesitancy in his voice.  She cocked her head, and he cleared his throat and started again. “I have some questions that I wanted to ask you.  Medical-type questions.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you felt the need to haul yourself over here after I already ‘kicked your ass up one way and down the other’ in physical therapy today, as I believe was your terminology.”  He ducked his head, and she waved a hand.  “No, I take it as a compliment.”

“Um…  I just…  I wanted to talk in private?”  Finn squeaked a little on the last word, and Car’qossa glanced between him and his bed, separated from the rest of the room by retractable curtains and not a lot else.

“I see.  Well, step with me into one of these exam rooms.”  She stood and came around the desk to him, slinging one of his arms across her strong, scaly shoulders and taking his weight without so much as a waver.  Car’qossa deposited him into a chair and sat across from him, running a hand over the door control to shut it.  She cocked her head again and the frills on her scalp stood up in what he had come to understand was expectation--the First Order hadn’t been really big on teaching non-human body language or spoken languages, so he was learning as he went.

Finn tried to figure out the best way to phrase the issue.  Then he tried to come up with an acceptable way to phrase the issue.  Then, finally, he just blurted, “I’ve been having erections.”

Car’qossa nodded calmly, face unchanged but her frills settling back against her scalp.  “That’s a normal human physiological experience.  Is there something unusual about them?”

Finn frowned.  “Like what, exactly?”

“Are they painful?  Do they last more than four hours?  Are they accompanied by a burning or itching sensation?  If so we’d want to run some tests and make sure there are no medical issues.”

Finn shook his head as she spoke.  “No, nothing like that.”

Car’qossa frowned slightly at him.  “Then what seems to be the problem?  Is it something else?”

Finn bit his lip.  This is the part he still didn’t understand.  “I wasn’t having them before, is the thing.”

“Oh, that’s completely normal.  The medications we had you on tend to have sexual side effects, and we’ve been tapering you down off of those doses for the last week and a half as you’ve healed up.  You should be back to pre-injury levels of sexual response in no time.”  She furrowed her brow ridge at him as he kept shaking his head.  “My apologies, Finn, I’m not sure what you’re asking.”

“I mean, I wasn’t having them _before_.  Before I was injured, before I woke up here.  They just started in the last couple weeks.”  Finn gestured expansively, trying to sum up his entire life in a hand movement.  “It’s…  New?”

Car’qossa’s head ridges stood back up.  “Finn, you never had an erection before?  Not in your time with the First Order?  Never as a teenager?  Not even just an autonomic erection upon waking?”

Finn shook his head.  “Never in my life.  It was really confusing, but then Jess gave me this book that explained what was happening.  I just don’t understand why it wasn’t happening _before_.”

All three of her eyes narrowed and her upper lip pulled back, exposing an array of sharp teeth.  “If I had to make a guess, I’d say the First Order was keeping you chemically castrated.  Unfortunately, we didn’t think to test you for drugs like that when we first started your treatment, so I have no way of proving it now.  Were you given medications on a regular basis?”

He nodded, recalling, “Regularly, at mealtimes.  There were a few pills, they said it was to keep us focused.  Make us better Stormtroopers, so we could serve the First Order.”  His own upper lip pulled back involuntarily, and they both snarled at the First Order for a moment.  Car’qossa shook her head and fixed Finn with an earnest look.

“I need to ask you a few questions so we can make sure your transition off those drugs is progressing normally.  Is that all right?”  At his nod, she continued, “Can you describe when your erections occur?  Is there a pattern that you recognize.”

“Um…  Mornings, now.  Basically every morning.  The book said that was normal, just something bodies did.”  Her nod confirmed it.  “And…  Uh…  Sometimes when I’m reading certain parts of the book?  It’s very…  Informative?”  Car’qossa nodded again, her face as relaxed as if they were discussing the weather.  Finn debated continuing, but then figured _kriff it_ , this woman had helped him pee when he was still too drugged to use his arms competently, there were no secrets between them.  “And sometimes when I think about Poe?”  Unable to stop the upward pitch at the end of the sentence, he hid his head in his hands and was thus slightly startled when Car’qossa patted him on the shoulder with her warm, scaly hand.

“Everything you’ve described is perfectly normal for a healthy allosexual human male, Finn.”  She paused, eyes glittering.  “Especially the part about Poe.  From what I understand he has that effect on much of the base.”  Finn groaned and refused to remove his hands from his face.  “You’re not going to tell him, are you?” he asked in a mumble.

“Of course not.  Doctor-patient confidentiality is a thing that exists and I take it very seriously.”  She gently pried his hands away from his face so she could make eye contact with him again.  “Finn, the book Jessika gave you.  Did it explain puberty?  How sexual interactions between humans work?  Do you have any questions?”

Finn shook his head, feeling slightly less embarrassed now that he had confirmation that his feelings were normal and also that she wasn’t going to tell Poe how he felt.  The book had _said_ everything was normal but it felt more real coming from someone like Car’qossa, who he was pretty sure always told the truth because it was entertaining to watch people try to come to terms with her bluntness.  “I think it was pretty clear?  It’s called ‘Love in Space.’”

The medic nodded in satisfaction.  “Oh, yes, that’s an excellent choice, but I’d expect nothing less of Jessika.  Now, I don’t want you to to and rush into anything you’re uncomfortable with, but I do recommend that you start experimenting with self-stimulation.”  Finn choked on nothing, the blush rushing back to his cheeks, and Car’qossa rolled her eyes at him.  “It’s perfectly normal and appropriate, Finn.  It’s also practical--if you don’t start finding regular release, you may find it happening while you’re unconscious.  That’s also perfectly normal and nothing to be ashamed of, but it’s messier and requires a change of clothing.”  She paused and narrowed her eyes, considering.  “Since you don’t have a lot of privacy in your area of the medbay, I suggest you do it in the shower.  I understand that’s a fairly traditional place to experiment, and it’s extremely easy to clean up.”

This was not how Finn had expected this conversation to go.  He was pretty sure the blush was permanent.  He would never stop blushing.  This was his life now.   _Didn’t that Finn used to be a Stormtrooper?_ they’d say.   _Oh yeah,_ someone would respond, _He used to be a badass but then he started blushing all the time for no reason and now none of us hang out with him._

Car’qossa stood up and patted him on the head gently.  “Finn, thank you for coming to me with this.  I know it was an uncomfortable conversation.  Would you like a hand back to your bed?”

Finn waved a hand at her, slumping over in his chair.  “No.  I’ve died of embarrassment.  Just leave me here.”  He heard her snort, which was all the warning he got before she scooped him up into her arms and carried him easily across the medbay.  Car’qossa plopped him onto his bed just a touch more roughly than he thought he really deserved, but he also couldn’t really blame her.

He tried to focus on other things for the rest of the afternoon, he really did, but tutorials in binary couldn’t hold his interest.  Neither could holonovels.  He managed to knit for a while but he was getting perilously close to the end of his yarn and he didn’t want to finish before Jess got back and he could ask her for some more.  After Car’qossa checked out for the evening he lay in the dark for a few long moments, staring at the ceiling and trying to think of anything other than erections and Poe and self-stimulation and failing miserably.  He shoved the blanket back with a huff and slowly pushed himself to his feet.  The ‘fresher was just a short shuffle away from his bed, and he made it before he could second-guess himself.

Hot showers were still not something Finn took for granted.  He wasn’t sure if he’d ever get over the novelty of unlimited hot water pouring over his skin, washing away dirt and tension and the stress of a long day.  Sighing, he leaned his head under the spray and just let himself enjoy the sensation for a few long moments, before another, also-mostly-new sensation made itself more known.  Finn opened an eye and looked down at the offending part of his anatomy.  Right.  Self-stimulation.  He’d read about this.  It was normal and healthy and he could totally do this and eventually he would stop blushing.  With a burst of confidence he didn’t totally believe, he wrapped his hand around his cock and _oh shit that felt really good_.

Finn leaned forward against the shower wall, head pillowed on his forearm, and experimentally ran his hand from the base to the tip and back again, and _kriff_ , reading about it didn’t hold a candle to actually doing it.  It was like the difference between running simulations in training and being in a real battle, only gloriously good instead of terrifyingly horrible.  He stroked himself, finding a rhythm that felt _right_ , somehow, tension coiling low in his belly, his breath coming faster and his heartbeat speeding up.  If it was this good on his own, what would it be like with a person?  What would it be like with _Poe?_  Unbidden, his mind brought up the image of Poe’s lips closing over a forkfull of cake, and then every muscle in Finn’s body was seizing up and he felt like he was exploding and he didn’t know what he was feeling but he was feeling everything at once as he gasped and spurted over his hand.  He slumped against the wall of the shower, panting and shuddering.  It took him a good five minutes to come back to himself and finish his shower, and by the time he shuffled back to his bed he was ready to drop to sleep immediately.

Finn wondered vaguely, before sleep claimed him, how many showers it was appropriate for a single person to to take in a day.  He felt like that was an important thing to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The smut train is leaving the station, all aboard the smut train!


	9. The Bump

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Fine,” she pouted. “If that’s how you feel, you can just give me back all that yarn I brought you. I only hunted through every market on Dantooine to find the fiber stalls, and then haggled my very best so I could bring back as much as possible, and then bribed Captain Heirno so I could stash it in the supply freighter on the way back. It’s fine, no big deal, you don’t have to appreciate my extremely thoughtful gift.” Draping a hand over her eyes, she let her head hang backward over the edge of the bed. “I’ll just lie here and try to contain my disappointment. I’ll survive somehow.”

“Yarn attack!”

Finn looked up just in time to get hit in the face with a ball of something soft, squishy and red.  “What the--” he spluttered, the soft and fuzzy assault continuing unabated until something much larger and less squishy flopped onto the end of his bed.  When his eyes cleared, Jessika Pava (still in her flightsuit) was grinning at him from across a warzone of scattered yarn balls.  

“You’re back!” he exclaimed, slightly unnecessarily, his grin matching hers in speed and delightedness, but winning in wideness by a slight margin.  “Is Poe here, too?”

“Commander Stupid Hair is still in debrief, since he was technically in charge of this mission.  It’s cool, I understand that compared to him I’m a complete disappointment,” she deadpanned, lobbing a final volley in his direction which he batted aside easily, grinning.

“Well, I mean, it was nice to have time to myself, you know, without pesky tiny pilots poking me with their feet--hey!”  Finn flailed at the feet in question as Jess rained pokes down on his midsection, managing to tamp down his ticklish response long enough to trap one ankle in each hand and hold them still.  Jess flopped backward dramatically, leaving her feet dangling from his grip.

“Fine,” she pouted.  “If that’s how you feel, you can just give me back all that yarn I brought you.  I only hunted through  _ every _ market on Dantooine to find the fiber stalls, and then  _ haggled _ my very  _ best _ so I could bring back as much as possible, and  _ then _ bribed Captain Heirno so I could stash it in the supply freighter on the way back.  It’s fine, no big deal, you don’t have to appreciate my  _ extremely thoughtful _ gift.”  Draping a hand over her eyes, she let her head hang backward over the edge of the bed.  “I’ll just lie here and try to contain my disappointment.  I’ll survive somehow.”

Finn looked from her to the pile of yarn scattered around him and back, bewildered.  “What?  You brought me yarn?”

“Obviously,” Jess told the ceiling.

“But…  This is…”  Finn released her feet and picked up a ball tentatively.  “You brought me  _ so much _ .”

“Duh,” Jess said, turning her head so she could eyeball him without sitting up.  “It’d be pretty stupid for me to just bring you one ball.  You might want to knit a sweater next!  Or a blanket!  Or an X-Wing cozy!”

The mental image of a X-Wing cozy had him wrinkling his forehead in confusion.  How would that even work?  He shook it off and looked back at the spoils of shopping lying around him.  “But…  I…  This can’t have been cheap, and you and Poe and everyone here have already given me so much and I just…  I don’t feel like I can pay it back.”

“I thought you might have some kind of stupid, self-sacrificing reaction like that.  Fortunately, I’m a genius.”  Jess rolled over to grab something off the ground that he couldn’t see, and then a bag about the size of BB-8 and smelling a little bit like Chewbacca landed on the bed between them.

“That,” Jess said primly, ”is a fleece from a Gorsiican cashgoat.  It’s been washed, so most of the actual dirt is gone, but it hasn’t been picked yet, so it still has a lot of bits of grass and twigs and stuff in it.  And this,” she reached into a pocket and pulled out something small and metal, ”is a pair of tweezers.  You pick all the crap out of that fleece and we’ll call it an even trade.”

Finn grinned and snatched the tweezers from her.  “Deal!  But I feel like I’m getting the better end of this bargain.”

Jess snorted.  “Tell me if you still feel that way when you’re elbow-deep in a fleece trying to get out that one Forcedamned piece of grass you’ve been hunting for an hour.”

BB-8 chose that moment to roll in, cheerfully whistling that Friend-Poe had just been released from debriefing and was on his way.  Finn’s face lit up.  “Thanks, BeBe!” he said, leaning over the pat the droid’s head.  “I have something I want to tell him!”

Jess’ eyes narrowed, flicking back and forth between Finn and BB-8.  “Finn?  Since when can you understand binary?”

Finn beamed proudly at her.  “BeBe gave me some books a week or so ago.  I’m getting pretty good, right?”

Chirping that his progress was very good indeed, BeBe flicked Finn their lighter attachment in encouragement.  Jess blinked.  “You learned binary in a week, Finn?  That’s…  Really impressive.”

Finn bit his lip, not meeting her eyes.  “I…  We…  Picking up new skills quickly wasn’t optional.”  He gestured vaguely at his head.  “Anyone who didn’t learn what was being taught as it was being taught at the speed they were teaching it wasn’t up to standards and was eliminated.  Car’qossa says they may have done something to our brains when we were babies to speed it up?  I’m not sure.  To me it’s normal to finish a holonovel in an hour?  Except for not having novels previously, I mean.”

Jess blinked at him.  “So you’re like…  A superlearner?”  She cocked her head at him, face breaking into a grin.  “That is  _ awesome _ .  Can you learn Shriiwook next?  Oh, oh, no, learn South Yavinese!  It’s where Poe’s from, he will  _ die  _ if he hears you speak it!”

“Why am I dying?” Poe asked as he rounded the corner, hair looking suspiciously like it had had fingers hurriedly combed through it in a corridor to make it especially presentable.

“Because I murdered you for being a doofus,” Jess deadpanned.  “And because your hair always looks better after a mission than mine does.  Right, Finn?”

Finn flushed and tried not to look like he’d been looking (and also tried not to look like he’d been  _ thinking _ about Poe during  _ certain _ activities).  “It’s pretty nice hair, I guess,” he said, aiming for casual and failing.  “I mean, I used to live in a sea of helmets.  I’m not sure if I’m some kind of hair authority.”

BeBe helpfully informed them that the obvious hair authority on base was General Organa and they should ask her to evaluate Poe’s hair.  For science.  The three humans all blinked at the droid for a moment.  “They’re right,” Car’qossa broke the silence as she crossed the medbay.  “General Organa has the best hair.  Also, Finn’s being discharged tomorrow.”  The exam room door whooshed shut behind her, leaving Poe and Jess staring at Finn.

“You’re getting out of here tomorrow, Finn?  That’s great news!”  Poe perched on the edge of the bed, grinning.  “I guess your PT went okay while we were gone, huh?”

“I wanted to be the one to tell you, but yeah!  I get released!  And PT has been terrible but now I can walk across a room without wanting to pass out, so that’s great!  I still need the chair for long distances for a while, but Car’qossa said I was ‘Sufficiently recovered to stop cluttering up her medbay with my yarn and my laughing,” but then she patted me on the head so I don’t think she’s actually mad.”  Finn frowned and cocked his head a little.  “The only weird thing is that no one will tell me where my new quarters are going to be located, which I feel is kinda important?”

“That’s because--” Jess started, but Poe jumped in with, “It’s a surprise!”  She narrowed her eyes at him, to which he responded with the  _ Oh kriff just go with me on this please _ look perfected over many a bar crawl and a prank war.  “Totally a surprise!” she agreed.  “The surpris-y-est!”

“We’ll come get you tomorrow and take you there!  To the surprise!”  Poe was aware that he was not currently at his most articulate, but the look of delight on Finn’s face was melting him inside.

“It’s a good surprise, right?  I’m not assigned to a broom closet?”  Somehow Finn’s hand had found its way into Poe’s.  He couldn’t manage to be embarrassed about it, and Poe didn’t seem to mind so he left it there.  Finn bit his lip.  “Because I’ve been in broom closets, and there really isn’t a lot of room for anything other than brooms.”

Poe was staring at Finn’s mouth again, and it took a poke from Jess to shake him out of it.  “Oh, no!  No broom closets.  I promise.  But I do need to go now…  To make sure the surprise is ready.”  He leaned forward to envelop Finn in an absolutely platonic hug that did not linger in any way and was totally just between friends.  Jess and BeBe shared another look behind his back.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, buddy!”  Poe flung a cocky salute at Finn as he strolled out of the medbay, BeBe trundling happily after him.  As soon as he was out of sight he took off in a run--he needed to clean his quarters  _ now _ .  Also, living with Finn was probably going to kill him but he made his life choices and now he was going to deal with them.

Jess sat up and stretched, not mentioning how Finn had watched Poe go like he was starving and Poe was a bantha steak.  “Here, I brought the bag from the yarn,” she said, breaking the spell.  “I’ll pack it up for you so you’re ready for tomorrow.”

“Do you have to go, too?” Finn asked.  “It’s been a while of just me, Car’qossa and Alliance staff.  It…  It hasn’t been the same.”

She grinned.  “I’ll do you one better,” she decided.  “Get in your chair, we’re going on a tour of the base!”

One whirlwind tour later, Finn was settled in his wheelchair outside the hangar bay, finally able to enjoy the environment of D’Qar now that he wasn’t panicked or dying.  It was green like Takodana, but with air that was a bit more humid, and a little warmer as well.  The air smelled spicy instead of crisp like Takodana or dusty like Jakku.

“It’s nice, right?” Jess said, sitting next to him on a toolbox.  “I like it here.”

Finn watched some kind of bird pick at the grass at the edge of the tarmac and smiled.  “Yeah, I like it too.  It’s my favorite planet so far.  No on here has shot at me.”

“We can change that if it’d make you feel more at home!” Jess offered cheerfully, eliciting a snort and a shove from him.  She sighed, resting her chin on her hands.  “It’s too bad we’re going to have to leave soon.  It’s been a good base.”

“When?” Finn asked, straightening.  “The Resistance is leaving?”

Jess nodded.  “Sometime within the next month.  The location was compromised during Starkiller.  We’ve been scouting new locations and I think we’re down to a couple of choices.”  Her mouth twisted mischievously, and she looked at him sidelong.  “But as long as we’re here and we have all this nice runway, wanna see how fast we can get that wheelchair going?”

It took a little convincing, but somehow Finn ended up at one end of the runway, wearing Jessika’s helmet.  “Right, when I say go, now stick your arms out and up and we’ll pretend to be an X-Wing,” she instructed.  “You ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” he responded, settling into his chair for the adventure.

“Awesome.  And…  Liftoff!”  Jess pushed him, getting the chair going fast enough that she was sprinting to keep up, and jumped onto the back.  “Now!”  

Finn put out his arms.

Jessika put out her arms and made “nyoooom!” sounds.

They flew down the runway.

It was all going great until they hit the bump and Jess went flying for real.

\---

“Road rash on the hands and forearms.  Cut on the forehead… Bleeding a lot but superficial.  And a skinned knee.”  Medic Car’qossa fixed Jessika with a glare the likes of which most people would never experience.  “And what, exactly, were you doing when you sustained these injuries?”

“Pretending to be an X-Wing!” Jess responded cheerfully.

“Pretending to be an X-Wing,” Car’qossa repeated flatly.

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“For fun, obviously.”  Jess said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“For fun.”  Car’qossa’s glare was unending and unyielding.

“Yep!” Jess popped the p, just to be annoying.

“You’re an idiot.  At least you didn’t re-injure my other patient.”  Car’quossa dabbed bacta gel onto Jess’ injuries with slightly more force than Jess felt was really necessary, but Jess was adult enough to recognize she probably deserved this.

“I would never.  First of all, I love Finn like a brother, only not really like a brother because if he was my brother this next part would be creepy.”  Car’qossa quirked her brow ridge and gestured for Jess to continue.  “And second of all, if I hurt him then he wouldn’t get to move in with Poe tomorrow and I am  _ dying _ to see how handles living with the object of his affections so very, very near.  I think he might literally explode from the sexual tension.”

Car’qossa barked something like a laugh.  “Those two.  How long do you think he’s going to hold out?”

“Which one?”  Jess shook her head.  “They’re both hopeless.  Snap’s running the pool, though, if you want to get in on it.”

The medic smiled and shook her head.  “Not ethical.  I know things.  You’re done.  Try not to be such an idiot next time, and get out of my medbay.”

“Thanks!  You’re the best!”  Jess popped a kiss onto Car’qossa’s forehead before she could be stopped and skedaddled out the door as a grumpy “I know I’m the best!” trailed after her.

Finn looked up as he heard the door.  “Are you all right!?” he asked, scanning her for further injuries.  “I should have been steering so we didn’t hit that bump.”

“Then we wouldn’t have been an X-Wing, Finn.”  She steered him back to his bed, patting him on the shoulder.  “I’m fine!  I’ve done worse to myself tripping on a wrench, I promise.”

“I just…  I didn’t want you to get hurt.”  He settled back against his pillows, a frown creasing his forehead.  Jess shrugged and sat next to him.  

“Sometimes in order to have fun you have to accept that there’s a risk of getting hurt.  It was worth it.”  She knocked her shoulder into his.  “It was fun, right?”

A reluctant smile played across his face.  “It was, yeah.  Right up until the bump.”

“Right, the bump was the shitty part.  But you know what?”  Jess grinned.  “I’d do it again, bump and all, and you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because my choices are  _ always _ great and I never ever make the wrong decision.”  Jess posed, nobly staring into the distance.  “I’m amazing.”

“You’re an idiot!” Car’qossa called from across the medbay.  “Go to bed!”

“Shut up, I’m posing here!” Jess yelled out the side of her mouth.

“She might have a point,” Finn said thoughtfully.  “You should probably go to bed.”

Jess slumped.  “Fine.  I can see when I’m surrounded by critics who just don’t understand my genius.  See you tomorrow, Finn.”  She squeezed his shoulder and headed for the door.  Just before she reached it, Finn cleared his throat.  “Uh, Jess?”

“Yeah?”

“Um…  Thank you for…  That book.”  He coughed and looked away.  “Youknowtheone.”

Jess grinned and leaned against the wall.  “Oh, yeah?”

Finn nodded, his blush barely noticeable but his eyes not meeting hers.  “It was very…  Informative.”

“Good.”  She paused.  “There’s more where that came from.  If you’re interested.”

His head whipped around.  “There’s  _ more _ ?” he whispered, eyes wide.

Jessika nodded.  “I’ll bring you some tomorrow…  If you want.”

“That…  Yes.  Sure.  Good.  See you tomorrow for good surprise thing.”  Finn shook his head and tried again.  “I mean, goodnight, Jess.  See you tomorrow.”

“Night, Finn.  Sweet dreams.”  Jess winked as the door shut.

Oh, Force, this was going to be  _ hilarious _ .  Poe was going to  _ die _ , and Jess was going to watch it happen.


	10. Shelves and Drawers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Congratulations, now you have some boring-ass fatigues, just like the rest of us!” Jess flopped back down on the couch, laying upside-down with her legs up the wall. “We actually also had a whip-round with the other X-Wing pilots to see if they had anything to spare that wasn’t boring as shit. Since all of them were pretty pleased you helped us blow up Starkiller, they all managed to pull through.”
> 
> “You realize I used to wear literally the same outfit every day, right?” Finn asked dryly. “Now I apparently own at least three pairs of pants. I’m really coming up in the world.”

“Can I open my eyes yet?”  Finn wasn’t exactly _whining_ , but he clearly had opinions about being wheeled halfway across the base with no visual input.

“Nope!” Jessika responded, popping the p.  “This is how surprises work, Finn.  I know it’s your first experience with them, but the main thing about surprises is that if you know they’re happening, it’s not a surprise.”

Finn managed to thwap her in the shoulder while keeping his eyes squeezed tightly shut.  “I know what a surprise is, Pava.”

“Ooooh, getting pissy and calling me Pava!  You sound like Poe!”  Jess grinned, though she knew it was a useless grin since Finn was really very studious about surprise etiquette.  “That’s what happens when you spend a lot of time with someone.  You start picking up all their mannerisms.  It’ll be terrible, in a month you’ll somehow have inherited Poe’s perfect hair.”  She pushed the chair around one last corner and brought it to a stop.  “It’s almost surprise time!  Keep your eyes shut!”  The door in front of them whooshed open and caught Poe in mid hair-ruffle, his fingers freezing on his scalp as Pava pushed Finn into his (their) quarters.  Jess raised her eyebrows at Poe and gestured between Finn and the room pointedly.  She and BB-8 shared yet another long suffering look as Poe just stood there in apparent emotional panic.

“Uh…  Are we there?” Finn asked tentatively.  

Poe quickly finished finger combing his hair into place before responding, “Hey there, Finn!  You can open your eyes now.”

Jessika wondered how these quarters looked to Finn, unused to things like actual friendship, personal autonomy, and band posters.  Poe’s quarters were bigger than hers (she was in a single, he had a double with room for two twin beds and a small kitchen) but otherwise it was the same greige with maroon accent industrial bullshit she was deeply familiar with, while of course full of things that she could only describe as “Poe-y.”  The holo of Yavin 4 was easy enough for him to take when they inevitably relocated, but she knew he had to bribe the support staff to make sure his handmade mugs and teapot made it from location to location unscathed.  (The part of her that paid attention to such things noted with pleasure that the afghan she’d knitted him over the course of six months of brain-meltingly dull recon missions was still proudly displayed over the small couch against the wall between the beds.  Good Poe.)

To judge by the awestruck look on Finn’s face, this was waaaaaay better than First Order accomodations.  “Are these…  Does _everyone_ have quarters like these?”

“Kinda.  Mine are smaller, but it’s mostly the same.”  Jess stretched and crossed the room to flop down on the couch.  “I don’t have a couch.  Mister Hotshot Dameron gets a couch because he’s a _Commander_.”

“It’s not like you don’t come by to sit on it whenever you want, Testor,” Poe snarked back, clearly trying to cover nervousness with bravado.  Jess rolled her eyes and slumped onto the couch in a even lazier fashion.

Finn pushed himself carefully to his feet and examined the holo of Yavin 4.  His eyes were very soft when he said, “They taught us about Yavin 4 in the First Order.  It was a cautionary tale, so we wouldn’t repeat the hubris of the Empire.”  He paused and touched the holo very gently.  “They didn’t mention it was so beautiful.”

Poe’s smile just about split his face as he put a hand on Finn’s shoulder.  “I grew up there!  It’s even more beautiful in person.”  He bit his lip before offering, “Maybe sometime I can take you there and you can see it for yourself?”

Finn turned to him, beaming.  “Really?  Oh, man, that would be amazing!  I want to see everywhere, you know?  Except Hoth, I hear that planet is terrible no matter what.”

Poe’s smile was gentle as he lifted a hand to cup Finn’s cheek.  “I promise, then.  I’ll take you to see everywhere but Hoth.  No Hoth, ever.  I’m making a note.”  They stayed like that, staring into each other’s eyes for long enough that Jess was starting to wonder if the betting pool would be resolved right there in front of her.  BB-8 ruined the moment by reminding Poe that Friend-Finn hadn’t seen everything yet.

“There’s more?” Finn asked, turning to look at the droid.  “This is pretty awesome as it is.  The quarters here are amazing, I can’t wait to find out what my assignment is.”  He blinked as BeBe informed him that this _was_ his assignment.  Finn glanced at Jess (who nodded), then turned back to Poe, befuddled.  “What does BeBe mean, Poe?”

Poe looked equally befuddled.  “You speak Binary now?”  

Finn waved the question away.  “Tell you later.  Is this actually my assignment?  Here?  With you?”

Poe bit his lip again, this time in apparent nervousness.  “Um, yeah?  I…  I thought that you might want to have people around who you knew, and Snap and Pava are both in single rooms…”  He trailed off, and Jess decided to turn around this awkwardness the best way she knew how.    
  
“SURPRISE!”  A handful of confetti (she’d made it herself out of shredded reports because she knew how to be resourceful) rained down on Finn and Poe.  “Welcome to _Your Half Of The Room_!”  Jess vamped across to the bed that had clean clothing stacked on it.  “Here is the bed!  It’s for sleeping, reading, and possibly doin’ it but that’s between you and a consenting partner!  Here’s a cupboard!  It’s where you put your stuff!  Right here is some stuff you could put into that cupboard!  The possibilities are endless!  Look at all this blank wall space, ready to be filled up with holo-posters of your favorite things!  Look at that kitchen where I will totally wander in at random times so I can use the oven to bake!  All this is yours for the low, low price of dealing with this jackass!”  Jess posed dramatically.  BeBe chirped their approval as Poe glared and Finn just blinked, clearly bewildered by the sales pitch.

“I…  What?”  Finn seemed to be having some trouble getting his mouth to work.  Poe shifted from foot to foot in obvious nervousness.  Jess assumed this wasn’t how he’d planned for this to go.

“You don’t have to stay here if you don’t want!” Poe blurted.  “You can ask for different quarters!  I just thought, you know, we’re friends, and you’re still recovering, and--”

“You, Poe Dameron, asked for me to be assigned to your quarters?”  Finn looked very serious.  Jessika was still holding her pose, and starting to wonder if she should leave before things got weirder.

“...Yes?”

“You actually requested for me, Finn, former Stormtrooper, to live here.”  Jess locked eyes with BB-8, both of them silently wondering where this was going.

“I…  Yes?”

Finn launched himself into Poe, hugging him tightly.  “That is the best thing anyone has ever done for me.  This is great!  Show me everything!  I want to see all the things!  Are there shelves in that cupboard?  Do I get shelves?”

“Shelves _and_ drawers!” Jess interjected, demonstrating the latter.  “And, hey, it looks like your drawers are better made than mine.  Mine get stuck like whoa.”

“To be fair, Testor, you pack those drawers so full of yarn they can barely close.  Hey, sit down, buddy!  You look a little shaky on your feet there.”  Finn waved off Poe’s concern but did allow himself to be guided to the (his) bed, landing with a bounce.  (Jess was sure the fact that Poe felt the need to “help” Finn to the bed with a hand on his lower back had nothing to do with it.)  Poe sat down on the other end of the bed and gestured at the pile of clothing between the two men.  “We requisitioned you some clothing so you can finally get out of those medical pajamas!”

“Congratulations, now you have some boring-ass fatigues, just like the rest of us!”  Jess flopped back down on the couch, laying upside-down with her legs up the wall.  “We actually also had a whip-round with the other X-Wing pilots to see if they had anything to spare that wasn’t boring as shit.  Since all of them were pretty pleased you helped us blow up Starkiller, they all managed to pull through.”

“You realize I used to wear literally the same outfit every day, right?” Finn asked dryly.  “Now I apparently own at least three pairs of pants.  I’m really coming up in the world.”  He held up a brightly-patterned swath of cloth.  “Is this actually clothing?  How do I wear it?”

“Oh, that’s from Nien Nunb!”  Poe reached across to take the fabric and shake it out to reveal its true status as a very large brightly colored rectangle of cloth.  “It’s a traditional garment from his home--it’s like a sarong, you tie it into whatever piece of clothing you need.  I grew up wearing similar stuff, I can show you all the options sometime.”

Finn looked up with a gleam in his eyes.  “Wait.  Can I…  Can I hang it on the wall?”  He frowned slightly.  “I mean, would that be okay with him?  I’ve never had a wall, or a thing to hang on it before.”

Poe grinned.  “I’m sure he’d be fine with that.”

“Enough about walls!”  Jess drummed her feet against the wall impatiently.  “Keep going!

“Hey, it’s my first pile of clothes!  I can go the speed I want.”  Finn rolled his eyes when Jess stuck her tongue out at him, an expression that quickly changed to one of delighted confusion when he pulled out a deep blue sweater.  “Wait, Jess…  You didn’t!”

“I did!” Jess crowed triumphantly.  “I knitted you a kriffing sweater!  In like two weeks!  Because I’m amazing!”

Poe rolled his eyes goodnaturedly.  “Yes, yes, Jess, we all know.  You and your mastery of the art of knitting is an inspiration to us all and it’s not at all boring when you decide we need an impromptu lecture on the properties of different fibers.”

“Shut up, Poe, yarn is amazing,” Finn said, voice slightly muffled from being in the middle of the sweater as he put it on.  He settled it into place and beamed at Jessika.  “This is amazing, too, Jess.  Thank you.  It’s so soft!”

“Only the best for my finest knitting student!”  Jess grinned, still upside down.  “I’ll teach you increases and decreases next, and you’ll be able to start making sweaters of your own.  Besides, I knew I had to get my awesome gift out in front so you’d be able to appreciate it before Poe’s overshadows it and you only have eyes for him.”

“There’s more?” Finn asked, boggled.  “But this has been so much already!”

“Just one more thing, buddy.”  Poe clapped Finn on the shoulder before leaning over to open the cupboard next to the bed.  When he turned back, he was holding his old jacket.  Finn’s jacket.  Jess was actually very impressed by how well the repair job had come out.  Poe had asked her advice, of course, being the resident textile expert, but he’d done all the work himself.  The immense cut up the back had been patched with a red leather Poe’d tracked down that was a pretty good color match for the existing red, with a smaller patch on the burn mark at the collar.  Poe’d then gone one better and added a few more patches in the new red, making it look like a design decision rather than a repair job.  Judging by the look on Finn’s face, he approved of the repair work, too.

“Your jacket!”  Finn reached out with shaking hands to carefully pull it into his lap.  “When I woke up in medical and it was gone I thought it’d been trashed.  You fixed it?”

“Sure did, and it’s your jacket now, Finn, remember?”  Poe reached out a hand to cover Finn’s where it skated over the patch job on the back.  “I wanted to be sure you got it back.  Jess helped out and we got it back together.  It’s not quite good as new, but we all have our scars and scratches, right?”  He squeezed Finn’s hand gently.  “I figured the jacket deserved a second chance, too.”

“You’re sappy as shit, Dameron,” Jess called from her place on the couch, Poe’s indignation giving Finn a chance to wipe his eyes and slide his arms into the jacket.  “You know you’re giving it back because he looks better in it than you.”

“Well, that’s true, too.”  Poe helped Finn pull the jacket up over his shoulders and smoothed it into place, his hands skating down Finn’s chest just a touch too far to be platonic.  (Jess knew.  Jess knew down to the micrometer when Poe’s hands switched from “helping out my buddy” to “helping out my _buddy._ ”  She said nothing, and cast her eyes at BB-8 in resignation.)  “Like I said before, it suits you.”

“I do look damn good in this jacket, don’t I?”  Finn preened comically.  “And the sweater.  The sweater is also real nice.”

“Nice save.  You remain an acceptable knitting recipient.”  Jess somersaulted backward off the couch and stood up into a stretch that took her up to her tippy-toes.  “Now I’m going to go to my own bunk, which I will remind you is small and has no oven for the baking of delicious things, and leave you to get settled in.  You have so many shelves to make decisions about!”  She patted BeBe on the head affectionately, then repeated the same action with Poe (who swore and batted at her hands).  Finn got a hug, because Finn was infinitely less annoying than Poe and also because he needed all the hugs ever.  Jess was also evil enough to use the hug as an opportunity to whisper “And there’s a data chip with some more _very informative books_ in the top drawer of your cupboard.”  Jess could feel Finn’s heartbeat stutter, and she kept her smile innocent and pure as she headed for the door, stopping to collapse the wheelchair and stow it away against the wall.

“Have a good afternoon, kids!  Enjoy the new books, Finn!”  Oh, yes, she knew she was evil because a good person wouldn’t enjoy the sudden embarrassment on Finn’s face and curiosity on Poe’s as she ducked out the door.  There were credits and honor riding on this, though, and Jessika played to _win_.

“New books?” Poe asked, sounding genuinely curious and not at all suspicious about how Finn might be feeling about him.  At least, Finn was pretty sure that was how he sounded.  Maybe.  He hoped.

“Yeah!  Just some books!  About book things!  Totally normal books!  About totally normal things!”  Finn needed a distraction and he needed it fast, before the thought of the _books_ and _Poe_ made themselves apparent somewhere other than his burning face.  Poe actually gave him that distraction by laughing.

“Oh, no, tell me Pava didn’t get you hooked on Snap’s cheesy romance novels?”  Poe rubbed a hand over his face, grinning.  “They’re just terrible.  It’s the same four plots only with different characters, and somehow everyone has a bodice to rip, even the species that don’t have torsos.”

“Uh, yeah!  Totally!”  Finn might be terrible at lying but he was riding this one to the grave if he could.  “They’re so ridiculous.  Who even acts like that?”  He floundered for the plot of the one of Snap’s books he had, thankfully, actually read.  “Everything would just be resolved if they actually talked to each other, right?”

“Oh my Force, yes.  How many contrived misunderstandings can fit into one book before people eventually get married?”  Poe shook his head ruefully and glanced up at Finn through his bangs.  “You want to know a secret, though?”

Finn had never wanted to know a secret more in his life if it involved Poe looking at him like that.  “Yeah,” he said in what he hoped was a casual manner.

“I get sucked into reading every damn one of them.”  His nose wrinkled.  “Don’t tell Snap, though.  I have to have something to keep giving him shit about.”

“Your secret is safe with me, “ Finn said, saluting jauntily.  They lapsed into comfortable silence for a moment, and Finn bit his lower lip.  (Was Poe looking at his mouth?  That couldn’t be right.)

“Poe?”

“Yeah?”

“We’re doing this?”  Finn gestured at the room, trying to sum up the concept of “roommates” into one hand movement.

Poe grinned.  “Oh yeah, we’re doing this.”

Finn grinned back.  “Good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course the jacket comes back because it, like I, am garbage that is getting a second chance.


	11. The Bone Zone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey snorted. “First of all, humans can’t explode without some kind of outside influence, so as long as you don’t eat any grenades you’ll probably be okay. So don’t eat any grenades.” She waited until he nodded his agreement to not eating explosives before she continued, “Secondly, that sounds like a pretty nice view, if you enjoy that sort of thing, so I think you should just look at his chest if you want to. Thirdly, I have no idea how any of this works so I don’t know why you keep asking me for advice.” Her mouth quirked thoughtfully. “Though I think Chewbacca and Luke both know a little more about relationships, so I could pass your questions onto them?”

“I’m gonna die, Rey.”

The staticky blue holo raised an eyebrow.  “I’m sure it’s not that bad,” Rey reassured him.

“No, it’s terrible.  You don’t understand.  I’m _living with him_.  We breathe the same air!  We share the same refresher!  It always smells like him in here!  I am one hundred percent sure that I am going to explode.”  Finn groaned and rubbed a hand over his face, leaning against the sarong he had, indeed, hung on the wall of his quarters.  (Nien Nunb was delighted, saying he was pleased other people appreciated the artistic qualities of the design.)  “Yesterday he came out of the fresher wearing just a towel, Rey!  A towel!"

Rey pursed her lips, looking very serious.  “Was his hair still wet?”

“Yes!”

“Was it dripping onto his shoulders and down his chest?”

“Yes!”  Finn grabbed a pillow and pressed it over his face.  “I didn’t know where to look!  It was terrible!”

“That is a terrible waste of water.  He should be more efficient in the fresher.”  Finn removed the pillow so he could glare at Rey, who shrugged.  “I’m not wrong.”

“Can we focus on how I’m going to die of exploding, and less on the water dripping?”

Rey snorted.  “First of all, humans can’t explode without some kind of outside influence, so as long as you don’t eat any grenades you’ll probably be okay.  So don’t eat any grenades.”  She waited until he nodded his agreement to not eating explosives before she continued, “Secondly, that sounds like a pretty nice view, if you enjoy that sort of thing, so I think you should just look at his chest if you want to.  Thirdly, I have no idea how any of this works so I don’t know why you keep asking me for advice.”  Her mouth quirked thoughtfully.  “Though I think Chewbacca and Luke both know a little more about relationships, so I could pass your questions onto them?”

“No!  Please do not ask the last Jedi in the universe about my kissing feelings for Poe!”  Finn hesitated.  “You can maybe ask Chewbacca.  He’s at least met me.  We had a really intense emotional experience that one time when I was trying to bandage him and he was trying to strangle me, so that might be how friendship works for Wookiees.”

A warbling roar came over the holo, and Rey laughed.  “Sorry, Finn.  He was just passing by.  He says in his experience when two people like each other they argue a lot and then kiss in a closet, so he suggests getting stuck in a closet.”  A further rumble.  “He also says that’s not _always_ how friendship works for Wookiees, but it is how it works _sometimes_.”

Finn grinned through his blush.  “Well, knowing he thinks of me as a friend is great.  Getting stuck in a closet is less helpful, but maybe it will come up.”

Rey smirked.  “Once I’m back I’ll find an excuse to put you both in a closet, I promise.”

“Great.  Now I have to worry about surprise closet attacks.”  Finn blinked.  “Wait, are you coming back?  Like, soon?  Not some weird Jedi version of soon that actually means never?”

Rey’s face lit up, and Finn remembered why he was so, so lucky to have this amazing woman as his friend.  “Yes!  We’re coming back next week!  We told the General earlier and I was going to tell you right away but then you needed to talk about Poe!”

“That’s great!  That’s better than great!  I can’t wait for you to meet everyone properly!”  Finn’s head spun as he imagined the possibilities.  “Oh, man!  I’m gonna ask Jess to bake you a cake!”

“Ah, yes.  Cake.”   Rey stared into the distance.  “I’ve heard about cake.  I thought it was just legend.”

“Cake is totally real, and even more delicious in person than it is in stories.  Jessika is an amazing baker.”  Finn frowned.  “I mean, I think so.  She’s the only person to bake me a cake so far, so maybe she’s not as good as she says she is, but I ate three slices so I’m pretty sure she’s a good baker.”

“Well, if she makes a cake then I can try it, too, and maybe between the two of us we can figure out if she’s a good baker.”  Rey sighed contentedly, leaning her chin on her hand.  “Finn, I know maybe there isn’t a lot of variety here compared to other planets, but the food is amazing.  Luke grows all these fruits and vegetables and we catch fish and he knows how to cook!  He makes things other than instabread and meat rations!  I didn’t know the universe had so many flavors, and now you’re telling me there’s going to be cake, too?”

“I know!” Finn said.  “There’s a mess hall here where you get to just pick whatever you want to eat at each meal.  I can try things!  And if I don’t like something I don’t have to eat it.”  They sat together for a moment, lost in thoughts of food.  “I’ll be glad when you’re back,” Finn admitted.  “It’s hard being the only one who doesn’t understand how all this stuff works.”

“You’re already miles ahead of me, unless handstands are a useful tool in dealing with other people.”  Her brow furrowed.  “Maybe I can do handstands _at_ people if they do something I don’t like, and then they’ll be impressed and go away.”

Finn nods thoughtfully.  “I’m pretty sure that would work.  Poe and Jess gave me some really helpful books, actually, so I’ve been reading those and it really helps explain a lot.  Though now I get mad about a lot of things.  I’ve never had a birthday party, Rey.  Apparently that’s a thing people do in most cultures!  There are presents!  And cake!”

“You’re pretty hung up on cake.”

“Cake is delicious.  You’ll understand once you’ve had it.”  Finn grinned.  “Which you will.  In a week, right?”

“Right.”  Rey beamed at him across the light-years.  “I’ll be sure to comm you once we have a firm arrival date.”  Finn heard another yodeling roar in the background, and Rey made a face and turned to look over her shoulder.  “Ugh, Chewie says Luke needs me for something.  I have to go, Finn, but I’ll see you in about a week?”

“Yeah, I’ll see you then!  Maybe by the time you get here I’ll be cleared for active duty and we can go explore the woods together.”  Finn had a lot of plans for those woods, namely 1) go there and 2) look around.

“I’d like that.”  Rey grinned wickedly.  “Try not to explode before I get back, okay?  I need to make sure Poe’s been treating you well.”

“I can’t make any promises, but I’ll try not to explode.”  They waved, and then the holo cut out and Finn was alone in the room that smelled like Poe.  He settled back on his bed for a moment, looking at the ceiling and just basking in the happiness that came from talking to Rey.

Rey.

Rey was coming back.

Finn sat bolt upright.

Rey was coming back, and by all the gods he didn’t know, she was going to have a _party_.

Finn bolted off the bed and out the door, leaving the holocomm clattering to the ground behind him.

 

\---

 

“I’m gonna die, Jess.”

Jessika beaned Poe in the head with a balled up grease rag.  “You brought this on yourself.  Now you have to live with your sexy torture.”  She turned back to her X-Wing.  Something was wonky in the left stabilizer and she was going to figure out what come Hutts or high water.

“You don’t understand!  The room is starting to smell like him!  He changes like, right in front of me like it’s nothing.  He’s so hot, Pava.  I think I’m gonna explode.”  Poe flopped across a couple of supply crates next to her and covered his face with his hands.

“Tell him how you feel, find out he feels the same way, and bang so hard they can hear it in the afterlife.  I bought lube the last time I was out in case you needed it.”  Jess heard more than saw Poe choke.  

“Pava!”  He sounded scandalized.

“Dameron, you have no leg to stand on here.  You know who I am and you still complain to me.  You don’t get to act all shocked when I tell you to get the kriff on with it.”  Jessika waved her wrench vaguely in his direction.  “I bless your union and wish you many happy orgasms.”

“Jessika Testor Redstar Blue Three Pava.”  Oooh, here came Poe’s best impression of an actual mature adult.  “I am being extremely careful not to pressure Finn into something before he knows what he wants.  Don’t tell me to rush into anything before the kid knows how dating works.”  Poe sighed.  “I just…  I really don’t want to make him feel obligated…  And I’m honestly not sure how much he knows about the whole process, and _that’s_ not a conversation I want to spring on him.”

“He knows more than you think,” Jess said absently, cramming a hand into the stabilizer casing up to the elbow.  There’s something in there that shouldn’t be, she was sure of it.  

“How would you know?”

“Oh, I gave him a copy of _Love in Space_ and he liked it so much I gave him copies of _Human Courtship and Coupling_ and _So You Want To Get Busy?_ ”  She wrinkled her nose and _yanked_.  “Oh, and a compilation of really good erotica--super sex-positive and with lots of different kinds of couples and groups represented.”  It was…  It was some kind of dead animal.  Huh.

“You gave him what?!”  A hand on her shoulder yanked Jessika around, and she found Poe staring at her in horror-relief.  “You gave him _porn_?  Why would you _do_ that?!”

Jess shoved Poe in the chest (he immediately moved back when he realized how close he’d been standing) and crossed her arms over her chest.  “What I _gave_ him was educational materials that I thought he might be _sorely_ in need of after an incredibly repressed upbringing, so that he enter into relationships with an understanding of what might happen, _Poe._  And then when he expressed gratitude for the first _very informative and educational book_ , I offered to get him some more and he _accepted_.  I gave him information about his own body and about how other people’s bodies work, and about how relationships might look and how intimacy might look.  And I gave him a variety of erotic media so that he could figure out if he actually likes the idea and what ideas he likes.”  She glared at him, full of protective, righteous fury.  “You know, the kind of thing you and I and most of the people here got when we were kids?  That we take for granted?”

Poe deflated in the face of her lecture.  “I…  That’s…  That’s actually a good point.”  He shook his head with a sigh.  “I should probably thank you for that.  It…  It’s better coming from you.”  The corner of his mouth quirked a little.  “If I gave it to him, I think it would seem too much like a come-on.”

Jessika nodded.  “Right.  I’m the cool big sister, so I can have these conversations.”  She paused.  “Also, I have money riding on this and I want you two idiots to get on the ship to the Bone Zone sooner rather than later.”

“Oh my Force, Pava, you always have to ruin the moment.”  Poe tried to put her in a headlock, so she danced out of the way and threw the dead animal from her stablizer into his face.

“Aww, yeah, winner Pava!” she crowed, dodging his wild swings as he attempted revenge.  He was still distracted by bits of desiccated animal, so she took the opportunity to jump bodily onto his back and hold on.

“Poe!  Jess!”  They paused in mid-wrassle as Finn’s voice reached them, both heads turning toward the hangar door.  Finn wheeled toward them at top speed, grinning like a loon.

“What’s up, pal?” Poe asked, trying to sound casual while Jess remained hanging off his back.

“Rey’s coming back and it’s next week and I want her to have a party because she’s never had a party before and I want Jessika to bake her a cake and I think maybe we can teach her to play Corellian Snap and I’m not sure what else happens at parties or how long they take to plan so I thought we should get started right away!”  Finn paused to catch his breath before adding, “Oh, and I want to knit her a scarf so I was hoping you could show me a good pattern, Jess.”

“Rey’s coming back?” Poe asked.  Jess wondered if he’d gotten distracted watching Finn’s chest heave for breath and hadn’t actually heard anything.

“Yeah!  Next week!  And I want to throw her a party!”  Finn grinned.  “I read about welcome-home parties!  And she’s never had a cake!”

Jess let go of Poe’s back and landed gently on her feet.  “Two people who have never had cake?  Unacceptable.”  She posed dramatically.  “I cannot allow this to stand!  Of course I will bake a cake for the noble Lady Rey!”

Finn frowned.  “Hey name is just Rey.”

“Shut up, Finn, just go with it,” she hissed at him out of the corner of her mouth, still posing.

“Ignore her, Finn.  Of course we’ll help you plan a party.”  Oh, good, Poe’s brain was finally working.  Hooray!

Finn beamed at them (Jess was sure she saw Poe stagger a little).  “Awesome!  Great!  So so far Jessika is going to bake a cake.  What else do we need?”

Poe stepped forward and clapped him on the shoulder.  “Let’s go find the book where you read about welcome-home parties and see what it has to say.  Then you can decide what sounds fun from there.”

They wandered off, Finn pitching ideas (Jess just barely heard “Like, a fountain, but with pudding?”) and Poe nodding along.  Jess watched them go and plopped down on a crate, shaking her head.

“When are those two going to admit it and just screw already?” she asked the world at large just as Nien Nunb was walking by.  He snorted.  “[I’m hoping it’s tomorrow, or I lose the bet,]” he tossed over his shoulder at her.

Turns out you can laugh so hard you fall off a crate.

Who knew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeeyoooo, another chapter.
> 
> It's still happening people, just a little slower than I'd like.


	12. Kriffed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was obvious who was flying when the Falcon swooped over the base in a celebration run, then shot back up into the atmosphere for an extremely smooth and completely unnecessary backflip to the cheers of the assembled Resistance personnel. Finn felt like he blinked and the Falcon had landed, the engines cutting out and leaving an abrupt and tense silence in their wake.
> 
> The landing ramp hissed and lowered. There was too much contrast between the daylight of D’Qar and the darkness of the Falcon’s interior for him to really make out much, but then he saw movement and he knew before he saw.
> 
> It was Rey.

Finn hopped from one foot to the other, cane nearly forgotten in his excitement.  He stumbled slightly, off-balance, and Poe was there to catch him with a warm arm around his waist.  “Hey, there, buddy.  We’re all looking forward to seeing Rey, but try not to end up ass over teakettle, okay?”

Finn nodded and settled himself on two feet.  Calm.  Calm.  He could be cool.  He could totally be cool.  Poe’s arm was still around his waist and he could totally be cool and calm about that.  Jess nudged his shoulder from where she stood on his other side.

“You’re vibrating like a hoverbird.  Take a deep breath.”  She grinned at him.  “The party is gonna be great.  I really outdid myself on the baking.”

Finn grinned and concentrated on his breathing.  Poe slowly removed his arm, and instinctively Finn grabbed for his hand with the one not holding his cane.  Their fingers interlaced, and Finn took a deep breath that was shaky from at least 70% _I’m gonna see Rey!_ and 30% _Holy shit handholding is great_.  He caught General Organa looking at them, and he immediately straightened under her scrutiny…  Only she didn’t seem to be looking him over for parade presentation.  There was a sparkle in her eyes had had been frequently missing since the attack on Starkiller and the loss of Han, and she was smiling.  Finn really wasn’t sure what about he and Poe was making her smile, but he was glad to see it.

The roar of engines breaking atmo made him completely forget that train of thought, and he squeezed Poe’s hand unthinkingly.  Poe squeezed back, grinning, as Jess yelled “That’s the Falcon all right!”

It was obvious who was flying when the Falcon swooped over the base in a celebration run, then shot back up into the atmosphere for an extremely smooth and completely unnecessary backflip to the cheers of the assembled Resistance personnel.  Finn felt like he blinked and the Falcon had landed, the engines cutting out and leaving an abrupt and tense silence in their wake.

The landing ramp hissed and lowered.  There was too much contrast between the daylight of D’Qar and the darkness of the Falcon’s interior for him to really make out much, but then he saw movement and he _knew_ before he saw.

It was Rey.

Finn was running before he realized it, cane clattering to the ground forgotten.  He felt like he was going to explode from the joy--it was buoying him up, carrying him across the empty tarmac toward her, skittering across all his nerves like warm electricity.  “Rey!” he yelled, and he barely heard her call of “Finn!” but he felt her smile down to the depths of his soul and then they collided in a hug and she was lifting him up and they were spinning and laughing and both trying to talk at once.

“It’s so good to see you--”

“You’re walking now, I’m so glad--”

“You have to meet Poe and Jess--”

“I have so much to tell you--”

{Can you nitwits not hug right in front of the ramp?  Some of us can’t go around.}

As one, Rey and Finn turned to look at R2-D2, who was indeed waiting (somewhat patiently) for them to stop blocking the base of the boarding ramp to the Millennium Falcon.  “Oh, sorry,” Finn said immediately, releasing Rey and stepping back.

{Thanks, Jacket-Kid.  Hey, rust-bucket!  You mean they didn’t dismantle you while I was away?!  What a shame!}  R2-D2 trundled past them, heading straight for C-3PO so the berating could continue.  Chewbacca was next, clapping Finn on the shoulder and yowling something that sounded maybe like a greeting before he loped off across the tarmac to envelop the General in a huge, furry hug.  

Finn wavered on his feet, suddenly acutely aware of the lack of a cane.  Fortunately, Poe chose that moment to appear next to his side and that warm, supportive arm was back around his waist.  Maybe he should forget his cane all the time?  Rey caught his eye and raised an eyebrow, and he ducked his head.  Stupid Jedi and their stupid knowing everything.

Speaking of…

The crowd was silent in anticipation.  They knew how to count.  They knew who was left.  A robed figure appeared at the top of the ramp, walking slowly down with measured steps.  It paused at the base for a moment, before reaching its hands (one flesh, one glinting metal) up to its hood to draw it back.

Luke Skywalker, the Last Jedi, raised a metal hand in greeting and the crowd exploded.  Leia strode forward, General meeting Jedi halfway between the Falcon and the ecstatic onlookers.  She stopped just outside of arm’s reach, her gaze steely and stern.  Luke spoke first.

“I’m sorry.”  He paused.  “I missed you.  I’m sorry.”

The General’s eyes softened, and a hint of a smile played across her lips.  “I suppose we have a lot to discuss,” she mused.

Luke nodded.  “We do.”

Leia opened her arms, and Luke stepped into them and Finn could _feel_ years of tension suddenly drain away.  He shivered with relief that was not his own, and Poe squeezed him a little tighter.  “Hey, you okay?”

Finn nodded, not sure how to explain it.  Fortunately for him Jessika’s timing was impeccable, and she poked him in the butt with his own cane.  “Finn, you know damn well Car’qossa will eat your ass for breakfast if she catches you without this, and then she’ll eat the asses of anyone who was in the vicinity.  My ass is damn nice, and I’m pretty attached to it, and I want to keep my ass, so you keep the goddamn cane.”  Rey barked out a sudden laugh, then slapped a hand over her mouth as though she was surprised at her reaction.  Jess turned to look at her and promptly dropped the cane.

“Oh, yeah!  Jess, this is Rey!  She’s my best friend and she’s going to be a Jedi!  Rey, this is Jessika Pava!  She taught me how to knit and one time we pretended to be an X-Wing together!”  Jess appeared to be frozen.  Finn wasn’t sure what that was about.  Fortunately Rey wasn’t frozen, and she extended her hand to Jess.

“It’s nice to meet you, Jessika.  Finn’s told me a lot about you.”  Rey grinned, and Finn was pretty sure he heard Jess choke a little, which was weird.  Rey was also still holding out her hand, and Poe had to poke Jess in the back before she unfroze.

“Hi, Rey!”  Jess grabbed Rey’s hand like a lifeline and didn’t let go.  “It’s nice to meet you too Finn has said a lot of nice things about you I didn’t really get to see you when you were here before so I’m glad you’re back and I’ll get to see you more you’re a really good pilot that backflip was great have you ever flown an X-Wing I could take you up in mine sometime I baked you a cake so I really hope you like it!”  Jess was smiling but also looked panicked, and she was still holding on to Rey’s hand and now she was babbling about repairs to the Falcon?  Finn turned to Poe to see if he knew what was going on, but Poe looked like a slightly evil overlord who had just received the greatest gift of his life, which was just as confusing as what Jess was doing.

“Why do you look so happy?” Finn whispered.  “Jess is acting super weird.”

“Tell you later,” Poe breathed.  “Just let me enjoy this.”

“Rey!” Luke Skywalker called, and Jess looked at the Jedi, then down at where she still held Rey’s hand.  She dropped it like she’d been burned, jumping backward and shoving her hands into her pockets.  Her face was very red, and Finn looked from her to Rey (who looked slightly confused), replayed the last couple minutes in his head, compared it to when he had acted similarly, and _oh._  He turned to Poe.  “I get it.”

Luke appeared by Rey’s side, and Jess seemed to blush even harder.  “Come, Rey.  Leia needs to debrief us before we we can be released to our adoring public.”  The last he addressed to Poe, Finn and Jessika with amusement in his voice.  Poe laughed, Finn grinned and Jess looked like she wanted the runway to open up and swallow her.  

Luke turned to Finn, specifically, and reached out a hand for him to shake.  “I understand you also took up arms against Kylo Ren.  Thank you.”  Finn opened his mouth to explain that it was nothing, he was scared, Rey was way cooler than him, but then his hand met Luke’s and there was fizzing, bouncing energy all up his arm.  It felt old, and powerful, and somehow tired, and he looked up, startled, to meet Luke’s inquisitive eyes.  Finn felt like he was being searched, or measured for a moment, and then Luke turned to Rey and raised an eyebrow at her.  She shrugged and made a gesture Finn couldn’t interpret, and Luke nodded and turned back to Finn.  “I think you and I will have some things to discuss in the near future, Finn,” he said.  He released Finn’s hand (the buzzing feeling immediately stopped) and stepped back.  “For now, though, Rey and I have business to attend to.”  He turned and strode away, robe billowing behind him.

Rey rolled her eyes as the other three goggled at the departing Jedi.  “Ugh, don’t encourage him with the hero-worship.  He loves to make things dramatic.”  She grinned at Poe.  “Poe Dameron.  It’s good to see you again!  It’s also good to see that you took such good care of Finn, because I really didn’t want to have to murder you in your sleep.”  Poe laughed and opened the arm that wasn’t supporting Finn, and Rey ducked in for a half-hug.  “It’s good to see you, too, Rey.  I’m glad you don’t have to kill me.”

Rey smiled and pulled away.  “I’ll see you later, Finn?” she asked.

“Yeah!” Finn grinned.  “We have a surprise for you, so comm when you’re about to get out of debriefing, okay?”

“Okay!”  She waved once, then turned and trotted off after Luke.  Jess watched her go in silence for a moment before blurting, “I baked a cake for you!”  Poe patted her on the back as she groaned.

“Smooth, Pava.  So smooth.”

“Die in a fire, Poe,” she snapped, leaning over and picking up Finn’s cane.  “Here,” she said, handing it to him.  “Now let us never speak of this again.”  She strode off across the runway, disappearing into the dispersing crowd.  They watched her go in silence, Poe grinning like a wampa after a feast.

“She wants to kiss Rey, doesn’t she?” Finn asked.

“Oh, yeah.”

“I don’t think Rey knows that.”

“I know.  Oh, Force, this is going to be _hilarious_.”

\---

Jessika was completely and utterly _kriffed_.

Why did Rey have to be so pretty?  Why did she have to be so kind?  Why did she have to make such obscene noises while eating desserts?  Noises that Jess wanted to hear all day, every day, both in ways that involved desserts and in ways that involved other activities.  She slumped over the table and gently knocked her forehead against it repeatedly.

“That’s not a valid move in Corellian Snap, Pava,” Poe said, grabbing her by the shoulder and shoving her back in her seat.  She flopped over backward, staring at the ceiling in a huff.

“Of all people, Poe, you should know my pain.”  She slung an arm over her eyes dramatically.  “I can hear her happy eating sounds from across the room!  During a _party_.  This is _terrible_.”  Jess snapped back upright and threw her cards down.  “Also, I win.”

Poe groaned, threw his cards down in defeat and pushed his pile of credits over to her.  “To be fair, it’s a pretty small party,” he pointed out.  “Finn was pretty smart to realize she’d find more than ten people to be overwhelming.”

“Yeah, well, I find _her_ pretty overwhelming.”  Jess gathered her winnings and glanced around.  Skywalker and the General had both stopped in earlier, briefly, but now it was mostly just pilots.  Chewbacca and Nien Nunb were chatting in a corner, sharing the roasted meats plate between them.  Car’qossa sat alone, doggedly working her way through what was probably her fourth slice of cake (she looked up and held up her fork to Jess in a gratitude salute).  Snap had dragged out his synthophone and was providing the musical entertainment (Finn had insisted on making a sign billing him as the top musician of the Resistance, which Jess supposed was technically true), while Iolo and Kare discussed various flying maneuvers with Rey, who was sitting next to Finn, and was lifting another bite of cake to her mouth, frosting messily smeared across one cheek, and…

“I am so kriffed,” Jess said out loud.

“You are more kriffed than a freighter in a dogfight,” Poe agreed.

Bebe blooped that Jess should just try putting her mouth on Rey’s mouth to see what happened.  “No, Bebe!” Jess hissed.  “And for the love of the Force and the gods I don’t know, _do not tell her any of this_!”

“Tell who what?” Rey asked, sitting down at the table with them with oh no that was a cream bun in her hand Jess was going to die this was the end tell her yarn she loved it.

“That’s it’s time for presents!”  Poe was a king among men and she would bake him his very own cake for this.  “Finn insisted that you have some welcome-home presents!”  Poe raised his voice to call to Finn across the room.  “Finn!  Present time!”

Finn’s face lit up.  “Oh, right!”  He grabbed a small bag and hurried to the table, dumping the contents out in front of Rey.  “I read about presents.  You give them to people for special occasions, or just because you like them, and I figured we like you and it a special occasion!”

Rey shoved the rest of the cream bun into her mouth (Jess died slowly of terminal having a crush) and reached for the parcels scattered in front of her.  “So I get to open them and then keep what’s inside?” she asked, delight in her voice.

“Yep!”  Poe answered.  “That’s how it works.”

Rey snatched one at random, pausing only to read the handwritten tag.  “To Rey, from Poe.”  She flashed him a quick smile before tearing into the package like a starving rathtar.  It contained a small ceramic cup, slightly lopsided, and she cradled it in her hands while looking at him questioningly.

“Oh, uh, my mom used to tell me stories about Luke Skywalker.  They flew together on a few missions.  She said when he was off-mission he spent a lot of time drinking tea and meditating, so I figured maybe that was a Jedi thing.”  He indicated the cup.  “My dad did pottery as a hobby, and I still have some of his projects.  That was one of them.  I thought you could use it for your Jedi tea.”

Rey grinned brightly, turning the cup over in her hands.  “It’s wonderful!  Thank you, Poe!”  She set it down carefully and reached for the next present, this one with the tag printed in binary.  “To Friend-Rey, from BB-8.”  She reached down to pat Bebe on the head before tearing open the present in a similar frenzy.  It turned out to be a small holo projector, and she glanced at Bebe before activating it.

“Oh, Bebe!” she gasped, and Finn, Poe and Jess took a breath as well.  It was a holo of Han Solo, a half-smile on his craggy face, clearly in the middle of sass-talking _someone_.  The holo automatically cycled through to the next shot, a holo of Rey and Han talking on the shores of Takodana.  Rey fumbled for Finn’s hand and grabbed it firmly, the next holo of the two of them celebrating their victory over the TIE fighters in that first flight in the Falcon.  Next was a shot of Chewbacca, roaring at someone, then a shot of the General, looking proud and kind, then a shot of Poe, grinning into the distance, then a shot of Finn, both thumbs-up to Bebe in what Jess recognized as the physical therapy course.  It ended on a shot of Finn, Poe and Jess all grinning at the viewer, then flicked back over to the shot of Han.  Rey slid to her knees, startling them out of their silence, to throw her arms around BB-8.  “Thank you,” she whispered against the droid’s casing.  “It’s perfect.”  Everyone politely pretended not to notice Rey wiping her eyes (maybe because they were all wiping their eyes, too, could you blame them?  Jess felt like her heart was about to implode) as she climbed back into her seat and reached for the next present.

The inexpertly wrapped lump said “To Rey, From Finn!” and she held it up with a raised brow, looking from Finn to the tangle of paper and tape and back.  Finn huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.  “It was my first time wrapping a present, okay?  Just open it!”

“Fine,” Rey said, “But I expect you to have greatly improved by the next gift-giving occasion.  Oh!”  She pulled the green and blue scarf from the torn paper, eyes shining.  “You remembered!  It’s beautiful, Finn!”  She immediately wrapped it around her neck and rubbed it on one cheek (fortunately not the one that had frosting on it still), eyes closing happily (Jess’s stomach did a weird flipping thing and _how was she not dead yet_ ).  “It’s so soft!  And I love the colors!  It’s like Takodana!”

Finn grinned.  “That’s what I thought, too!  I wanted to make you something that was a far from Jakku as possible.  Jess helped a lot, too--she got me the yarn and helped me pick out a pattern.”

Rey’s eyes opened and met Jess’ directly and sincerely.  “Thank you very much, Jessika,” she said, her voice very serious.  Jess tried not to die or say anything really stupid, managing an “Anytime!” and a wave that she hoped look casual.

“To Rey, from Jessika,” Rey read out loud, and _oh kriff Jess had forgotten about this oh no what had she done to deserve this life_.  Rey glanced back up at her and Jess grinned and hoped she didn’t look like she was about to throw up from nerves.  Rey tore into the little package to find…  Her brow creased, and she looked up at Jess.  “Is this…  Did you knit me a little BB-8?”

Blessedly, now that it had happened, Jess found herself capable of coherent speech.  “Yeah, I mean, I know we hadn’t met before today but Finn speaks so highly of you I wanted to make you something for the party, and Bebe is always talking about how kindly you treated her on Jakku.  She was really disappointed that she couldn’t go with you to find Master Skywalker, so I thought maybe I could make you a BB-8 that you could always take with you.”

Jess found herself trapped in a tight, tiny, and brief hug and blinked as Rey settled back into her chair.  “I love it!” she declared.  “Thank you!”  She turned to Finn.  “Is there more cake?”

“Oh yeah!”  Finn replied.  “And did you have any of the fruit tarts yet?  I’ll grab you one.  Come on, Poe!”  The two men headed over to the food table, leaving Rey and Jess alone together.  Jess thought frantically of something to say that wasn’t “Can I lick that frosting off your face?” when Rey saved her from herself.

“So you baked all the cakes and buns and things, right?”  At Jess’ nod, Rey beamed at her and leaned forward.  “They are delicious.  All of them are delicious.  I thought fresh fruit was good but then I had some of that cake with the fruit in the middle between the frosting?  I could eat it forever.”

Jess rallied through the lightheaded feeling of having Rey smiling at her to respond, “Oh, that’s an old family recipe!  I love baking.  I’ll be sure I bring you the first pick next time I make something.”  She paused, debated, and then charged ahead.  “Speaking of frosting, you have some…” Jess gestured, and Rey frowned at her, confused.  Before she could second-guess herself, Jess leaned forward and swiped the errant frosting off Rey’s cheek with her thumb and _oh kriff her cheek was so soft._  She cleared her throat and held up her thumb.  “Frosting,” she said unnecessarily.

Rey covered her mouth with her hand and giggled.  “Oh, no, how long was that on my face for?”

Jess’s mouth curled up at one corner.  “For the entire present situation, at least.”  Unthinkingly she licked the scrap of frosting off her thumb, and…  Did Rey stare at her mouth?  No, that couldn’t be right.  “I meant what I said earlier, too, on the runway?  If you want to try out an X-Wing I can take you up in mine.”

Rey’s smile was like being dunked in a pool of warm fizzy light.  “I’d really enjoy that, Jessika.”

“Call me Jess,” Jess managed to get out.

Rey’s smile got even brighter somehow.  “Jess.”

Jess was so Forcehumping Huttspanking _kriffed_.

She couldn’t manage to care, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH YES THE FEMSLASH WAS INEVITABLE AND NOW IT IS HERE LIKE ICING ON YOUR CHEEK.


	13. Jam Trance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Actually, you’re both incorrect.” Jess and Poe looked up and holy shit Luke Kriffing Skywalker was standing at their table. Jess barely managed to swallow the caf in her mouth before she could a) choke on it or b) spit it across the table right into Finn’s face.
> 
> “Sir?” Poe managed.
> 
> “About who would win the fight,” Luke clarified, looking ridiculously calm and mysterious while Jess frantically wondered if he could sense her sudden hero-worship-panic. She was pretty sure she was not being subtle.

Jess managed to get through the next week without making a complete idiot of herself in front of Rey mostly because the next week was spent packing up and evacuating the D’Qar base with ruthless efficiency.  Now that the last Jedi had joined the Resistance there was an extra level of urgency to the proceedings--no one wanted to stay in a compromised location for an instant longer than absolutely necessary in case there was an attack, because somehow it would be the fault of each individual member of the Resistance if something happened to Luke.  At least, that was how she explained it to Finn over breakfast on their last day on D’Qar.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” he insisted.  “In fact, that’s exactly the kind of thinking that Lt. Parrvox says is problematic and probably related to anxiety.”

Jess shrugged and nodded.  “I’m not disagreeing with you.  It’s also a natural response, even if it is stupid as hell.  Plus, it meant that we packed up like, waaaaaay faster than usual, so that’s a serious benefit.”  She wrinkled her nose.  “Last time we had to move bases the quartermaster and the head cook almost got into a fistfight over oven transportation.  It was dangerous.”

“Oh, I remember that!” Poe chimed in, dropping his tray on the table and shoving in next to Finn.  “My money was on the head cook.  I’ve seen him break down a full side of bantha in twenty minutes.”

“No way, Dameron, the quartermaster has four arms and I’ve seen her carry a full crate of caf under each arm _and_ balance one on her head.  She’d have totally won.  That’s just how numbers work.”  The argument was old and comforting, and Jess was halfway through a sip of caf when a new and entirely unexpected voice joined the conversation.  

“Actually, you’re both incorrect.”  Jess and Poe looked up and _holy shit Luke Kriffing Skywalker was standing at their table_.  Jess barely managed to swallow the caf in her mouth before she could a) choke on it or b) spit it across the table right into Finn’s face.

“Sir?” Poe managed.

“About who would win the fight,” Luke clarified, looking ridiculously calm and mysterious while Jess frantically wondered if he could sense her sudden hero-worship-panic.  She was pretty sure she was not being subtle.

“I think you’ll find that regardless of who _started_ a fight between the quartermaster and the head cook, the ultimate winner would be the person who _ended_ the fight.”  He raised an eyebrow at their silence.  “Obviously, that would be General Leia Organa.”

“I think he’s right,” Finn said thoughtfully.  “I’m pretty sure I saw her glare an agreement into being between two analysts the other day.  They were yelling about something and it was really heated and then it was like, boom.  Handshakes.”

The corner of Luke’s mouth twitched up a bit.  “She does have that effect on people.”  He turned to address Finn specifically.  “Finn, I understand your physical therapy is almost complete?”

“Oh, yeah!”  Finn grinned.  “Almost back to 100%.  Car’qossa says I should only need the cane for really rough days, and I’m not allowed to, in her words, ‘Go jumping off cliffs or do any other idiot recreation’ for another month, but I’m cleared for active duty.”  He beamed at Poe, who beamed back at him, and Jess considered trying to spoon her eyes out so she didn’t have to be disgusted by their cuteness.

“Excellent to hear.  Once we’ve settled into the new base, please seek me out.  There are things we need to discuss, and things here have been too…”  Luke gestured in a vague way at the almost packed-up mess hall, and base personnel running back and forth with hover-loaders.  “The timing hasn’t been right,” he said almost apologetically.

Finn nodded.  “Okay.  I’ll find you.”

“Thank you.”  Luke bowed slightly, then swept away, leaving a weird ripple of calm in his wake as people paused to watch him go.  The moment was broken when Rey plopped down next to Jess with a tray piled high with two of everything.  “Morning,” she said cheerfully, loading her fork with eggs.  “What did Luke want?”

“He…  I think…  Did Luke Frikking Skywalker just come over to our table to join in on a ‘who would win in a fight?’ conversation?  And then make a joke about how it would totally be his sister?  Did that really happen or has reality left me entirely?”  Jess slumped over her breakfast to pound her head on the table very softly.  Someone’s hand gently and awkwardly patted her back, like the owner was concerned she was choking but confused about how much force to apply.  Jess looked up to find the hand belonged to Rey and tried not to blush too hard.

“He likes doing that.  I think he’s doing it on purpose to mess with people.”  Rey shoveled an impressive amount of food into her mouth before continuing, “The other day I saw him levitate a sunfruit off someone’s tray.  He just brazenly stole it with the Force and no one said anything.”

“Seriously?” Poe asked.

Rey nodded.  “Seriously.  He even started eating it as he walked away.”

Jess gaped.  “You’re telling me that Master Luke Skywalker, last Jedi in the galaxy, the man who blew up the first Death Star, uses the Force to _pull pranks on people_.”

Rey shrugged, mouth stuffed full of a savory pastry.  “I think he gets tired of people treating him like a god, or the savior of the galaxy, or whatever,” she offered, spraying a couple crumbs as she spoke.  “So…  He messes with people a little.”

“That is ridiculous,” Poe said.  “Ridiculous.”

“Yeah, but, to be fair, if I had the Force, I would totally use it to prank people.  I would probably use it for nothing else.”  Jess grinned wryly.  “Probably just as well I’m not a Jedi, huh?”

“Well, if you were a Jedi we’d get to train together, so that would be nice.”  Jess tried valiantly not to explode as Rey crammed another entire pastry into her mouth.  Nice!  She said it would be nice!  To spend time together!

“Nah, no chance,” Poe interrupted, leaning across the table to bop Jessika on the forehead.  “I’m pretty sure the Jedi have some kind of screening process that makes sure assholes like Jess don’t make it in.”

“Yeah, well, your _face_ wouldn’t make it in, so eat a dick, Poe.”  The entire conversation was worth it to watch Poe and Finn freeze, glance at each other, _notice_ the glancing, choke, blush, and turn away from each other in perfect unison.  Out of the corner of her eye Jess could see Rey pause her voracious breakfast consumption to watch in bemusement.  Jess smirked, knocked back the rest of her caf, and pushed to her feet.  “Speaking of Poe’s face, he and it are supposed to be leading the rest of us in an escort on the final evacuation.  See you on the other side?”  She tried to address it to both Finn and Rey, but somehow ended up just staring at Rey, dammit, emotions this betrayal will not stand.

“See you there.  May the Force be with you, Jess.”  Rey smiled, bright and sincere and not even a little marred by having some gravy on the corner of her mouth, and Jess’ heart decided to do the dance equivalent of shotgunning a Rhuvian Fizz.  “Thanks!” she managed to say in a fairly even tone.  “Poe?  Poe’s face?  You two coming?”

“Shut your caf-hole, Pava.”  Poe threw a balled-up napkin at her, which Jess dodged with the ease of someone who grew up with siblings.  She rolled her eyes and tried not to die a little as Finn pulled Poe into a stupidly adorable hug.  Which kept going.  Oh, and now they were murmuring into each other’s ears.  She met Rey’s gaze.  Rey also rolled her eyes.   _Just kiss already_ Jess mouthed at Rey, who nodded with longsuffering understanding and shoved an entire slice of jam-laden toast into her mouth.  Jess tried not to stare too hard as Rey licked the excess jam off her fingers.  This girl would be the death of her.   _The death_.

Poe slapped his hand onto her shoulder, and Jess startled out of her jam trance.  “Shall we, Blue Three?” he asked cheerfully, and she allowed herself to be steered out of what remained of the mess hall.

Rey watched her go with a serene expression on her face.  Once Jess was out of sight, she whipped back around to Finn, who was staring after Poe with a dopey-happy look on his face.  “Finn,” she hissed urgently, and he shook himself, meeting her gaze.  “Yeah?” he asked, looking concerned at her vehemence.

“You said you had books?  About people?  And how to people?”

He nodded.

“I need you to give them all to me right now.  Especially the ones about girls.”

Finn grinned.  “I can do that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's short but it's here!


	14. Hoth:  Not Even Once

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They walked the woods in silence for another quarter of an hour before Luke paused in a small clearing and sat on a mossy rock. (Rey was used to the long silences--Luke liked to see if she was going to be the first person to break and talk, but she had years of solitude under her belt and was more stubborn than a dewback at a nest site so he inevitably spoke first. She mentally kept score.) He gestured to the rock next to him and she settled onto it, running her fingers over the moss, marveling at its texture and feeling the tiny amount of the Force that hummed through it.

“Rey?  Walk with me?”

Rey blinked and looked up at Luke from where she was elbows-deep in a malfunctioning kitchen droid she’d offered to have a look at while the kitchen staff was still unpacking.  (Jess had immediately and enthusiastically offered up her workbench and her meticulously-organized tool collection, something that had caused Poe to roll his eyes and give the smaller pilot a shove.  Rey still wasn’t sure what that was about.)  She nodded and wiped her oil-stained hands on a similarly oil-stained rag, carefully stowing a couple of tools back into their specifically-labeled spaces in Jess’ toolbox.

Luke waited patiently for her to finish up and then strode off toward the exit of the new hangar, trusting that she’d fall into step beside him.  He said nothing more as they headed out across the tarmac and into the woods surrounding their new home.  (Rey understood that General Leia had evaluated several potential locations and then chosen the one with “The least kriffing snow possible, do you understand me clearly?” hence Salal III, a generally-temperate, mostly-uninhabited planet with huge coniferous forests and an abandoned mining operation that served as a handy headstart on establishing a hidden Resistance base.)  He remained silent as they entered the woods and the blanket of whispering, natural _forest_ washed over them.  Rey inhaled the fresh, piney scent of the trees and wondered, again, that there could be so much green in the world.

They walked the woods in silence for another quarter of an hour before Luke paused in a small clearing and sat on a mossy rock.  (Rey was used to the long silences--Luke liked to see if she was going to be the first person to break and talk, but she had years of solitude under her belt and was more stubborn than a dewback at a nest site so he inevitably spoke first.  She mentally kept score.)  He gestured to the rock next to him and she settled onto it, running her fingers over the moss, marveling at its texture and feeling the tiny amount of the Force that hummed through it.

“You’ve settled in well?” Luke asked eventually.  Rey glanced over at him.  He looked as serene as always, without the tiny hint of amusement that betrayed when he was going to take her answer as an excuse to make her do handstands for an hour.  Which, of course, she _could_ do, and sometimes practiced in her off time just so that she could spite him by doing them more easily, but this wasn’t going to be a handstands day.  Interesting.

“Yes.  I suppose.”  She paused, gathering her thoughts.  Rey appreciated Luke’s eternal patience, since it never made her feel like she needed to rush her words when she was having trouble expressing something.  “It’s been very strange going so many places and being expected to just…  Be able to be there.  I spent so long stuck in just one place on Jakku that it’s been overwhelming to go to so many places and see so many things I’d only dreamed about.”  There was always a tiny tremor in the Force around Luke when she spoke of her time on Jakku, or anything about her childhood.  She hadn’t puzzled out what that meant yet.

Luke’s mouth twisted wryly under his beard.  “I can relate,” he said with a small shake of his head.  “There’s nothing quite like suddenly being torn from a tiny scrap of desert and thrown into a struggle of galactic proportions.”

“Literally, there is nothing like it.”  Rey wrinkled her nose.  “I guess growing up on a scrap of a snow planet might be pretty close.”

Luke shuddered.  “In our opinions on snow planets, my sister and I are perfectly aligned.  Hoth:  Not even once.”

Rey frowned.  “But you went there once.”

“And it was a terrible mistake.”  They lapsed into comfortable silence, watching some kind of small arboreal rodent leap from tree to tree around the clearing.  It disappeared back into the branches before Luke spoke again.  “Your friends have been helping, though.”  It wasn’t entirely a question, and Rey smiled involuntarily.

“Yes.  That’s been the best part of everything.  Even if I’d known how everything was going to happen before I left Jakku, I’d still do it again.  They’ve all been better than I ever dreamed of.”  She closed her eyes and sought out their Force signatures, faint though they were from this far away.  Finn felt like bubbles and warm sunlight.  Poe was more solid, with a feeling like he was always flying, and Jess…  Jess was…

“Good.  And how have things been going with your young lady?  Jess, wasn’t it?”

(She would later blame the distraction of categorizing Jess’ Force signature for why she reacted the way she did.)

Rey tried to shoot to her feet with her eyes still shut, opening her mouth to speak and bringing up her arms to try and defend herself with gestures, but all she really managed to do was get entangled in her own limbs and fall off her rock.  “What?” she yelped.  “No!  I!  She’s not!  I mean...”  She succeeded in rolling over and looked up at Luke, who was…

No.

Not okay.

Luke was _laughing_ at her, so far gone that no sound came out.  He shook uncontrollably, his metal hand covering his mouth, the other gesturing vaguely at her at the rock and the air around them.  Tears sparkled in the corners of his eyes as he bent fully over and actually pounded on his knee with his free hand.

Rey crossed her arms over her chest and glared up at the small patch of blue sky visible between the treetops.  “It’s really not that funny,” she muttered without any real heat behind it.  He laughed so rarely that she couldn’t begrudge him it, even if it was coming at her expense.

Moments later, Luke managed to stop laughing long enough to breathe properly, and quickly settled back into his usual serene state.  “My apologies, Rey,” he said solemnly, reaching down a hand to help her back to her feet and then to her seat beside him.  “I wasn’t expecting quite that strong of a reaction.”

“She’s not my young lady,” Rey managed to say with some level of dignity but without being able to suppress the high spots of pink burning on her cheeks.

“Be that as it may,” Luke said calmly but like he didn’t believe her at all, “My goal is clarity.  The ancient Jedi Order was very clear about romantic entanglements--they were considered to be a distraction.  Jedi were not to love one person, they were to love all of life.  Sex, love, marriage, other romantic configurations, and having children were all forbidden.  To be a Jedi was to embrace an ascetic lifestyle.”  He paused to look her directly in the eye.  “To which I say:  Bantha shit.”

Rey snorted a laugh, then slapped her hand over her mouth.  “What?”

“I think the ancient Jedi had good intentions but were a bunch of idiots,” Luke continued, like he was discussing the weather.  “Love isn’t a weakness, it’s a source of strength.  Sex isn’t a distraction, it’s a natural biological urge that should be acknowledged.  Family, whether that’s chosen or blood, is vital to our emotional and physical health.”  He reached over to pat her shoulder.  “In short, Rey, if you want Jess to be your young lady, nothing about being a Jedi will prevent it.”

Rey goggled at him.  “Did you really bring me out here to the woods just so you could dispense _relationship advice_?  You?  The man who spent ten years alone on a rock?”

“I will have you know that I spent at least forty years not alone on a rock prior to that,” Luke said dryly.  “I do have some experience with these things.”  His face tightened, and he flicked his gaze away from her to stare at the clearing again.  “And, as it happens, that wasn’t the only thing I brought you out here for.  There’s something I’ve needed to tell you, Rey.”

Rey frowned.  This was different.  She could feel the anxiety radiating from Luke in waves, raising the hairs on her arms.  What could he possibly have to tell her that would make him _nervous_?

“First, I want to apologize for waiting this long.  I needed to be absolutely certain,  and that wasn’t possible until we were back somewhere with real medical facilities.  Then I told myself I wanted to be sure you had settled in with your friends and had a support network outside of a Wookiee and a sarcastic astromech droid.  Then…”  His mouth twisted, and not in a wry way.  “Then I suppose I was just scared.  Fortunately my sister has always had more sense than I do and _convinced_ me I was being an idiot.”  Luke managed a dry chuckle.  “There may have been yelling.”

What was he going to tell her?  Why would he be scared?  Rey’s mind whirled with possibilities, all of them ridiculously unlikely.   _Maybe I’m actually a terrible Jedi and he’s going to tell me I can’t be his student anymore._

“Rey, may I see your lightsaber?”

Her arms reacted without permission from her brain, unclipping the saber from her belt and holding it out to him.  Luke took it and settled it across both his hands, palms-up.  “When you were at Maz’s place on Takodana, this called to you.”

Rey nodded, mouth dry.

“Do you know why?”

“Because I have the Force?”

Luke smiled.  It didn’t reach his eyes.  “That’s part of it, but it wouldn’t react to just any untrained Force-sensitive individual.  The saber called out to you, specifically, because it is your birthright.”

Rey couldn’t breathe.

“This lightsaber belonged to your father, Rey, and to his father before him.”  He reached out and took her unresisting hand, placing the saber gently into her palm and curling her fingers around it.  “It’s yours now.”

“My father--” Rey managed to gasp out, her hands shaking so hard that she almost dropped the lightsaber.  She clutched it to her chest, unable to stop trembling.  “My father--  But--  Why did you--  Why _didn’t_ you--”

“You were _dead_ , Rey,’ Luke said, his voice unsteady and his eyes wet.  “Your mother was dead and Kylo Ren killed her and you were gone and I couldn’t feel you through the Force, I couldn’t feel you _anywhere_ , I would have torn apart the whole galaxy searching but I couldn’t _feel_ you so you must have been dead, I didn’t know you were on Jakku, if I had known I would have come for you immediately, the entire Empire couldn’t have stopped me--”

“I was alone!” Rey screamed, shooting to her feet and gulping back a sob.  “I was _alone_ and _starving_ and you were meditating on an _island_ with more water than I knew existed and you--”

“I know, Rey.  I know and I am so sorry.”  Luke was crying in earnest now, great wet tracks down his face disappearing into his beard.  “I am so sorry, you were dead and I didn’t know--”

Rey staggered away from him and he fell silent except for his shuddering breathing, not that she could hear anything over the rushing sound of her own blood and heartbeat in her ears.  She dropped to her knees on the other side of the clearing, holding on to the lightsaber so tightly her knuckles went white and her joints cracked.  Her lungs couldn’t get enough air, she felt like she was drowning, _why hadn’t he come for her_?

With a stuttering, broken breath, she closed her eyes and reached out for the Force around her.  Tears slipped down her cheeks but she ignored them, finding the calmness of the great forest around her and letting it flow into her heart and mind.  Trees didn’t care about the short, strange lives of humanoids.  Trees cared about the sun and the earth and fresh, clean water, and they cared slowly and deeply, and she filled herself with that ancient, pure stillness until she could breathe again and her heart was no longer about to burst from her chest.  Rey wasn’t sure how long it took, but her cheeks were dry by the time she surfaced from her trance.

Someone was singing.

Rey kept her eyes shut, breathing slowly and deeply, the lightsaber still cradled to her chest but gently now, like a pet rather than like a lifeline.  The song tickled somewhere in the back of her head.  She _knew_ it, somehow.  A wave of deep, fierce nostalgia crashed over her, almost making her gasp.  Why did she know it?

_A sensation of being warm and happy, enveloped in blankets.  Someone held her, secure and snug up against their chest.  A hand stroked up and down her back.  The person holding her was singing.  She heard the song with her ears but also could feel it vibrate through their chest, lulling her into unconsciousness.  A blurry memory of two faces looking down at her, one leaning down to press lips to her forehead.  She was safe.  She was home.  She was loved._

Rey opened her eyes.  She turned her head.

Luke’s head was bowed.  He sang the old lullaby quietly, half to himself, as though he didn’t intend her to hear it.  He finished the song before he looked up and met her gaze with red, tear-swollen eyes.

“Papa?” Rey asked, voice small.

“It’s me, Rey.  It’s me.”

Almost before he had finished speaking she was across the clearing, throwing herself into his arms.  They were both sobbing again, but instead of the hot, angry sobs of before Rey felt like something was breaking or melting inside of her and it was all pouring out through her tears.  She had a father and a family and now ten years of isolation and hope and anger was tearing itself down and all she could do was cry and smile at the same time.

A hand on her head that couldn’t belong to Luke made her look up into General Leia’s smiling, tear-streaked face, only she wasn’t just General Leia anymore, was she, she was Aunt Leia now.  Leia sat down on the rock next to her brother and cupped Rey’s face in her hands, swiping away the tears with her thumbs.

“Welcome home, Rey,” she said.  “I’m glad my idiot brother finally settled things.”

“I am not an idiot,” Luke protested.  Leia leveled a cutting glance at him, and he deflated.  “Okay, I might occasionally be a bit of an idiot.”

“Like taking your daughter out into the woods for a heartfelt, emotional conversation right before lunch?”  Leia rolled her eyes and then snorted as Rey’s stomach growled, right on cue.  The older woman stood and gently pulled Rey to her feet.  “Come on, back to the base with you before you decide to eat Luke as revenge for putting this off so long.  I’m pretty sure your young lady Jess stole an oven in the evacuation confusion, and I am absolutely certain I smelled her spiced squash scones as I headed out this way.”  Leia strode back toward the base, all business, leaving a bewildered (and suddenly very hungry) Rey and Luke behind her.

“She’s not my young lady!” Rey protested to Leia’s retreating back.  Her aunt turned around and fixed her with a sharp look.  

“Oh?  Then what are you going to do about it?”  Leia raised a knowing eyebrow and turned on her heel back toward the base.  “Come on, they’re probably still warm!” she tossed over her shoulder at them.  Rey turned to _her father_ (wow that was going to take some getting used to) in confusion or solidarity, she wasn’t really sure which.

Luke shrugged at her.  “You should probably listen to your aunt, since as we have established, I can be a bit of an idiot.”  He paused.  “I would also very much like a scone.  Walk with me, Rey?”

Rey smiled, bright and shining.  “Of course.”

  
(The scones were delicious.  Jess tripped over a couch when Luke asked for one but she didn’t break anything or hyperventilate so that counted as a success.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, honestly I was planning on jumping ahead to the smut and then this happened instead. Sorry not sorry? Hope you like emotions!


	15. The Force

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn stood outside the door and told himself that this was fine, he was fine, he was totally calm, Luke Skywalker wanted to speak to him and therefore it wasn’t rude to ring the door and he wasn’t actually going to interrupt the General in the middle of something extremely important and she wouldn’t kick him out of the Resistance for his insubordination. A minute later he still didn’t believe himself but managed to make himself ring the comm for entry anyway. The door whooshed open and he tentatively poked his head in.

Finn sometimes found himself bewildered by how his life had turned out.  Three months ago he was being reprimanded for being too compassionate toward his fellow Stormtroopers and Captain Phasma was telling him he had potential to be an officer if he’d just stop worrying about other people.  Now he was following his best friend through some underground tunnels on a Resistance base while she used her sweet Force powers to track the last Jedi in the universe, because for some reason Luke wanted to talk to _him._  Plus Poe had hugged him goodbye and told him good luck when he headed out to find Luke this morning, so that was great.

Anyway.  Life was weird.

They turned one last corner and ended up outside of the General’s new office.  “That makes sense,” Rey said thoughtfully.  “I think he spends a lot of time trying to catch up with her to try and make up for all the time he was away.”

“I still can’t believe he’s your _dad_ ,” Finn blurted.  “That’s so _weird._  And _cool_.”  The revelation of Rey’s parentage over dinner the previous evening had come as a wild shock to all of them.  Poe had alternated between offering congratulations, freaking out that _General Leia was her aunt holy kriff_ , and trying to figure out if he’d ever met Rey when they were children.  (Eventually they’d settled on “probably not.”)  Finn had wanted to know what it felt like to have family suddenly show up. (“Kind of weird, honestly.  I don’t know what to do with them now?  I think now hugging happens more frequently but that’s as far as I’ve gotten.”)  Jess had choked on her soup, drank half a glass of water, and then immediately left the mess hall, her face blank with shock.  She’d returned about fifteen minutes later with a tray of cookies, announced that they were her emergency cookies, and then proceeded to eat about half of them herself.  (“She kind of hero-worships Luke, you know,” Poe had explained later, as they were getting ready for bed.  “And she already has a crush on Rey so knowing that she’s related to Luke is kind of exploding her brain and she doesn’t know how to react.  When Jess doesn’t know what to do she feeds people and she eats.  I think we might get a souffle out of this before she’s done freaking out.”  Finn had nodded along at all of this and tried not to stare too much as Poe pulled off his uniform undershirt and shrugged on a pajama shirt, knowing that was a sight he was going to revisit in the shower later.)

Finn dragged his mind back to the present as Rey grinned at him.  “Yeah, it’s so _weird_.  Sometimes I halfway forget and then I re-remember and I get surprised all over again.”  She wrinkled her nose.  “And sometimes a little bit angry, but I think that’s going to fade eventually.  Anyway!  Good luck with whatever Luke wants, and may the Force be with you.”  Rey clapped her hand onto his shoulder and then headed back off down the hallway, leaving him to his fate.

Finn stood outside the door and told himself that this was fine, he was fine, he was totally calm, Luke Skywalker wanted to speak to him and therefore it wasn’t rude to ring the door and he wasn’t actually going to interrupt the General in the middle of something extremely important and she wouldn’t kick him out of the Resistance for his insubordination.  A minute later he still didn’t believe himself but managed to make himself ring the comm for entry anyway.  The door whooshed open and he tentatively poked his head in.

“Hello?”

“Ah, Finn.  Excellent.  You have very good timing.”  General Leia smiled at him from behind her desk.  Lt. Parrvox perched on the edge of the desk to her right, and Luke sat across from her in a squashy-looking chair.  The General gestured at the chair’s twin, empty and next to Luke, and Finn settled into it cautiously, not sure why this meeting needed to involve all three of them.  He wasn’t sure why _Luke Kriffing Skywalker_ wanted to talk to him in the first place.  This was uncharted territory.

“Finn, what do you know about the Force?”  Luke smiled at him with that serene Jedi look and Finn barely kept himself from yelling “YOU ARE REY’S FATHER THAT IS SO WEIRD WHAT.”  Instead he took a deep breath, centered himself by curling his toes in his shoes, and recited, “It’s an energy that binds the Universe together.  Luke Skywalker perverted it to blow up the Original Death Star, and then later misused it to strike down Darth Vader and the Emperor, throwing the galaxy into the chaos that the Light Side always brings.  Only Supreme Leader Snoke and the Knights of Ren understand the true power of the Force, and thanks to their understanding of that power they will lead us to victory over the Light and we will bring order to the galaxy.”  He paused, aware that all three of the others were staring at him with the tight look that came whenever he brought up the beliefs of the First Order.  Finn made a face.  “Also, the First Order is made of bantha shit, got everything wrong, and my best friend is learning to use it and that seems pretty great?”

Finn felt the tension in the room melt away as Leia laughed out loud, Parrvox snorted, and Luke let out a genuine chuckle.  The Jedi was still smiling when he spoke.  “Well, the general gist you have there is correct, if biased.  I’m pleased to hear your impressions of the Force are generally positive.”

Finn frowned.  “Why wouldn’t they be?  And why would it matter?”

Luke opened his mouth to speak but Leia bluntly cut in with “Because you’re Force-sensitive and Luke wants to ask you to continue your training with him.”  She raised her eyebrows as at Luke’s affronted look.  “No, don’t eyeball me like that.  You were going to draw it out and be mystical, don’t try to deny it.”

“I like being mystical sometimes,” Luke huffed.  Lt. Parrvox looked up from grooming her tail fur to snort.  “We’ve noticed,” she said dryly, and Luke had the good manners to look slightly embarrassed, followed by frowning and looking back up at the General.  “Wait,” he said.  “You said to _continue_ his training.  You _knew_?  Who’s been training him?”

The look Leia directed at Luke would have made even General Hux quail.  “Of course I knew, Luke,” she said archly.  “I may not have followed in your path, but I _am_ trained in the Force and I _can_ recognize it in others.   _And_ I’ve also learned my lesson and know better about setting people up for emotional success _before_ throwing them into the deep end of the Force pool if I have any choice in the matter.  As for who’s been training him…”  She gestured at Parrvox, who flicked her tail and met Luke’s gaze.  They stared at each other for a long moment, an unspoken conversation hanging in the air between them like the afterimage of a bolt of lightning.  Luke nodded and inclined his head.  “Of course,” he said aloud.  “Forgive me, it’s been quite some time since I met one of your species.”

Finn sat frozen, hand still floating in the air in mid-gesture.  “I’m sorry,” he managed to say, feeling the words coming from far away, almost from someone else.  “I must have misheard you say that not only am I Force-sensitive, but that I’ve been training in it and both of those things are news to me?”

Parrvox suddenly appeared on the arm of his chair, startling him slightly.  “Finn, please walk me through the techniques we’ve been practicing to reduce your anxiety levels.”  Her voice was calm and warm, and he concentrated on it as he spoke.

“I take a deep breath, and I try to count as high as I can on the inhale and as high as I can on the exhale.  As I do that, I put my hands on my pant legs or the wall or the ground, and I try to really focus in on the experience of what I’m touching.  Once that’s all I’m thinking about, I close my eyes and let myself concentrate on my breathing until I feel calm again.”  He demonstrated each method as he went and settled into the now-familiar rhythm, breathing deeply, letting a lazy, comfortable energy wrap itself around him…

Only now there was something else.  Something different but somehow also a little familiar?  There was a sensation of age and sadness buzzing inside his mind on the one side, and then a deep caring underlain with steel and grief tickling his mind on the other side.  They felt similar but not the same, and when the realization hit him he opened his eyes in shock to find Luke and Leia watching him from the same sides of the room that he’d felt them in his mind.

“Holy kriff,” he breathed.  “That was the _Force_?”  Finn turned to Lt. Parrvox.  “How?  Why?  Why didn’t I notice before?”

Parrvox smiled.  “That was, indeed, the Force, Finn, though the techniques I teach people work regardless of their level of sensitivity.  As for why you didn’t notice, most of us who are Force-sensitive don’t realize it’s unusual until we actively use it for the first time.  My species has a baseline level of Force-sensitively that’s higher than many other groups, so to us it’s completely normal and it’s more unusual if we don’t have it.  It’s rare for any of us to be powerful enough to become anything like a true Jedi--” She inclined her head at Luke, who returned the gesture.  “--but among ourselves we have a limited level of telepathy and amongst other species we’re consistent empaths and pick up languages quickly.”  She grinned, a quick flash of blunt teeth.  “It gives us a leg up on being therapists and doctors.”

“And we didn’t tell you about your Force-sensitivity before now, Finn, because we felt it was better to allow you to settle into your new life and role without that added pressure.”  Leia’s voice was kind and matter-of-fact.  “Your previous experiences with the Force were less than ideal.  My son is not a role model.”  This she said flatly, shutting out any emotion, and Lt. Parrvox nimbly sprang back over to the desk to settle down with her tail wrapped around the General’s shoulders.  Leia stroked it idly and nodded her thanks.

“I’m not entirely sure if I’m a role model, either,” Luke said a bit sadly, ”but I’m what’s left.”  He turned to meet Finn’s gaze, serious and somber.  “This is your _choice_ , Finn.  I believe that you have the capability to become quite skilled, and the Force is strong with you, but if you choose not to train with me I won’t be offended.”  He gestured at Leia and Parrvox.  “The path of the Jedi is not the only one available to those with the Force, and training with me also isn’t a commitment to becoming a Jedi should you decide that isn’t the path for you.”

“Will I get to learn how to use a lightsaber properly?” Finn blurted.

Luke blinked.  “Yes.  Of course.”

“Good.  Because if I meet Kylo Ren again, I am _not_ going to be the one who gets lightsabered.”  Finn winced and turned to the General.  “Sorry, ma’am, I just refuse to have to grow a third spine.”

Leia dismissed his apology with a hand gesture.  “Young man, if we run into my son again, you’ll have to beat me to him.”  She and Luke exchanged a look while Finn carefully looked anywhere but at them.

Luke cleared his throat, ending the moment.  “You don’t have to make a decision--”

“When do we start?”  Finn clapped a hand over his mouth.  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt!  I got excited.”

Luke smiled.  “Your enthusiasm is noted.  You can start tomorrow.  Follow Rey after breakfast and we will begin.”  He extended his flesh hand and Finn shook it, noting that buzzing feeling that he now understood was Luke’s Force power.  The General nodded at him warmly as Finn stood to leave.  Luke began to stand as well when Lt. Parrvox spoke.

“Speaking of beginnings, I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon, Luke.”  She spoke in a way that somehow reminded Finn of the General, even though they were quite literally nothing alike.  

Luke smiled blandly.  “I don’t think that will be necessary--”

Whatever explanation he was about to give abruptly cut off when Parrvox sprang from the desk to the arms of his chair, tail lashing, settling down smoothly into a straddle that required Luke to press himself back to avoid touching her.  She smiled a hard little smile, and oh wow she really reminded Finn of General Leia now.

“What was that, Master Skywalker?  Were you about to say that Jedi are above things like therapy and that meditating alone on a mountain for ten years is an appropriate and healthy response to trauma?”  She cocked her head and flicked her ears back and forth.  “Because that would be a very incorrect and foolish thing to say.”

Luke looked past Parrvox’s shoulder at Leia, who twitched one shoulder and gave him a hard stare, the one Finn recognized as her “You are doing this because it needs to be done so stop complaining” stare.  Luke deflated.  “Tomorrow afternoon, then,” he capitulated.  The Lieutenant patted him on the shoulder and leaped lightly back to Leia’s desk.

“Excellent,” she said, primly wrapping her tail back around herself.  “I’ll be seeing Rey as well.  Emotional harmony is very important to use of the Force,” she explained to Finn.  “You and I will continue our sessions until further notice.”

Finn grinned and shook her hand.  “I’m glad.”

“You’re dismissed, Finn,” the General told him with a smile.  “Go find your young man Poe and tell him the good news.”

Finn felt his cheeks flush immediately and hoped it wasn’t too obvious.  “He’s not my young man,” he managed to say evenly if at a bit of a higher pitch than normal, trying to edge out the door.

Leia fixed him with a calculating look.  “Oh?  Then what are you going to do about it?”

The door whooshed shut.

What the _kriff_ even was his life right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOU get therapy! And YOU get therapy! EVERYBODY GETS THERAPY!


	16. Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jess, being Jess, insisted on a party.

Jess, being Jess, insisted on a party.

“To celebrate you being a Jedi!  And Rey having a family!  And us having a sweet new base with a sweet new pilot’s lounge which has been yet unchristened with a celebration!” she explained to Finn over dinner. They’d managed to talk her down from having a party that same night, since Rey pointed out that Finn was starting his training the next day and in her limited experience parties didn’t combine with sleeping terribly well.

“Plus,” Poe pointed out innocently, “This way you’ll have more time to bake.  I haven’t had one of your vanna-cakenut souffles in years.”

“What’s a souffle?” Rey asked with wide eyes and a streak of soup on her cheek, and Jess died a little inside.

“It’s like a fluffy slice of paradise,” Poe explained cheerfully. Rey turned her eyes to Jess and said “I want to put that in my mouth,” in a very serious tone, and Jess barely managed to not kriffing die even further what.

“Right,” she said weakly.  “Tomorrow night, after Finn’s first day of training.  There will be a souffle.”

Rey grinned and turned back to her overflowing dinner tray.  

Later, as the pilots were walking back to their wing (Finn had insisted on sitting with Rey for a little while longer so she could tell him what to expect the next day) Poe bumped Jessika’s shoulder.  “So.  A souffle, eh?  I can barely remember the last time you made it.  What was her name, again?”

“Her name was Miriam,” Jess hissed, “and she turned out to be straight, and you were the one who brought up souffles and Rey likes my baking and it’s the only thing I have going for me so if you kriffing blow this for me, Dameron, I will light you on fire and then never bake or knit for you again!”  Jess groaned, deflating, and pounded her head against Poe’s shoulder repeatedly as they walked.  “Rey’s gonna turn out to be straight, isn’t she?  My souffles are cursed and she’s only using me for my baking.”

“Hey,” Poe said, patting her on the head.  “Baking isn’t the only thing you have going for you.  You also have that whole knitting thing.”

“Not helping, Black Leader.”

“Seriously, Jess, you’re smart, a great pilot, stupidly loyal, your face is nice, and you have excellent hygiene and very rarely smell bad.  If this were a weird alternate universe where you weren’t like my lesbian little sister, I’d date you.”  Poe wrinkled his nose.  “But ugh, in this universe that would be super weird and gross.”

“Thanks, but never talk about us dating again.  That is the weirdest and the grossest.”  She punched his shoulder affectionately and sighed.  “Now I just need to track down some vanna and some cakenut, like that’s going to be easy and not cost me one bajillion credits while the quartermaster raises her eyebrows at me like I’m some kind of weirdo because baking is great.”

“Well, I might have bought some on that last mission while you were buying yarn, and stored it in my room until just the right moment,” Poe said innocently, inspecting his fingernails.  He was therefore slightly surprised when she leapt onto him like an angry, ambulatory backpack.

“You’re an utter shitlord, do you know that?” she asked while administering a ferocious hair-ruffling.  “That was before we even knew Rey was coming back to the base.  Are you secretly a Jedi?  Can you see the future?  Because if you can see the future, you should know I’m about to do this!”  To judge by Poe’s squeal, he could not, in fact, see the future and the wet willy was a very big surprise.

“Honestly I just really like that souffle and I was going to bribe you to make it!  Stop!  That feels weird and gross!”  Jess let Poe flail ineffectually for a moment longer before she relented and dropped back to her feet.

“You know that as long as you buy the ingredients you really don’t have to bribe me to make things, right?  You can just ask.”  Jess eyeballed him in pretend irritation.  “Now let’s get to your room so you can give them to me because apparently I have a souffle to bake.”

“It’ll totally work this time, Pava,” Poe reassured her as they fell back into step toward his quarters.

Force, she hoped so.

\---

(Later, Jess thought she really should have left the bottle of Dandoran rum back in her quarters.

But it was a party, her brain had said.

It’ll be fun, her brain had said.

It’s not like you’ll drink it all yourself, her brain had said.

Technically that last part was the truth.  Technically.)

The souffle was a success.  So were the fairy cakes with butter frosting, the lace cookies, and the savory cheese biscuits.  Jess had always been a baking machine, but Rey’s presence was a serious motivator.  Really, if she was honest, Finn’s presence was a pretty big motivator as well.  There was just something about seeing the wonder with which the two of those sweet summer children experienced new things that made Jess want to be the person who brought them new things.  (Obviously Poe felt it pretty hardcore, too, but Jess had it a lot easier what with the almost infinite variety of baked goods to be found in the universe.)

Now, though, she wasn’t baking.  She was working on a scarf (the knitting had taken quite a hit when the baking had started back up, and she was trying to make up for lost time) and watching Rey experience souffle for the first time.  Snap and Car’qossa were dancing together in the clear space off to the left of the lounge (well, not so much “together” as “near each other and with completely different styles and moves.”  Snap actually knew what he was doing, while Car’qossa basically just punched the air to the beat, but they seemed to be having fun so more power to them), but Jess had eyes only for Rey as that first bite of souffle passed her lips.  And then she had eyes only for Rey’s lips, and it was A Problem.  A larger Problem presented itself when Rey let out a little moan and closed her eyes in delight.

“Jess, this is delicious.  I’ve never had anything like it!  Poe was right, it is a fluffy slice of paradise.”  Rey’s smile was blinding, and Jess ducked her head and hoped her blush looked like the perfectly normal blush of a normal human accepting a normal compliment.

“I’m glad you like it, souffles are a little tricky but I think they’re worth it.”  Jess’ glance slid sideways to where Finn and Poe were sitting much too close for “just friends,” sharing a single plate piled high with desserts, and she huffed and rolled her eyes.  Rey followed her look and shook her head, shoving half the slice of souffle into her mouth in irritation.

“Poe’s been pining since before Finn even woke up,” Jess whispered with another eyeroll, jamming her knitting needle into the stitch a bit harder than necessary..  “It’s ridiculous.  They’re ridiculous.”

“I know,” Rey murmured, leaning in a little closer (Jessika’s heart beat a little faster).  “Finn’s been talking about Poe since the first time I commed him.  It’s like watching two scavs circling over a piece of salvage to see who’s going to move first, only like, with mouths instead of with punching.”  Rey frowned.  “I am not great at metaphors.”

Jess narrowed her eyes at the two lovesick idiot boys.  “I think I might have an idea.”

“Oh?”  Rey perked up.  “I like ideas!”

“Great.  Follow my lead, then.”  Jess finished her row and carefully stowed her knitting back away in its bag before standing and skipping over to Finn.  She could feel Rey following a step behind her, still carrying her dessert plate (Rey did not walk away from unfinished food).

“Finn!” Jessika chirped, grabbing his hands.  “Come dance with me!”

Finn blinked up at her, bewildered.  “But I don’t know how?”

“I’ll teach you!  Come on, it’s fun!”  She tugged on his hands gently as he looked back and forth between Jess and Poe, confused.  

Rey, catching on, tugged on Poe’s sleeve.  “I’ve never danced,” she said matter-of-factly.  “You can teach me and Jess can teach Finn.”

Poe narrowed his eyes at Jessika, suspicious, and she carefully kept her face perfectly innocent.  “Yeah, okay,” Poe agreed after a moment.  “Come on, Finn, it’ll be okay.”

Finn pouted as he allowed himself to be dragged to the makeshift dance floor.  “Fine, but if I’m terrible at this and step all over your feet you’ll only have yourself to blame.”

“You’ll be fine.  It’s pretty simple.”  Jess made eye contact with Snap and jerked her head pointedly at the dance floor, making a twirling motion with her hand.  Snap grinned and winked, turning to the music players and shuffling through to the correct song.

It was really a pretty simple dance--you took a few steps to the left, and then back to the right, repeated the process, traveled in a bit of an arc and then there was the twirl.  Snap had insisted on teaching it to every pilot “Just in case there’s ever a talent show or something, we’ll have this in the bag,” and Finn picked up the basic steps pretty quickly.  A quick glance over his shoulder showed that Snap had managed to convince Car’qossa in as his partner, Iolo had dragged Kare over and Rey was handling everything pretty well, too.  Perfect.  Perfect.

The music shifted, the twirl happened, and Jess let got of Finn’s hands at the apex of the twirl.  Finn staggered a bit as the momentum caught him…  Right into Poe’s arms to pick up the next portion of the dance.  Jess grinned in triumph.  This was going to work!

Half a second later she was hit by a twirling Rey.

Oh.

Oh no.

She’d genuinely not thought this far ahead.

Balls.

Fortunately her feet knew what they were doing even as her brain shut down, and by the time they’d finished the next twirl she was reasonably capable of speech.  “I think this might work!” she half-shouted into Rey’s ear over the music.  “Can you see them?  What are they doing?”

Rey leaned in so she could speak directly into Jess’ ear, and Jess definitely did not take the opportunity to smell her neck thank you very much.  “Poe has turned completely red and Finn is doing that thing where he bites his lip and now Poe can’t look anywhere else. This was a good plan!”  She leaned back, cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling.  “Also, this is fun, Jess!  Dancing is fun!”

Jess opened her mouth to say something completely stupid, like “Kiss my face right now please,” when the music shifted again and she twirled Rey away from her, turning to meet a twirling Snap, both of them moving smoothly back into the sequence.

“You’re some kind of evil genius, you know that?” he said with admiration.  “This dance?  Evil.  Totally evil.”

“I honestly didn’t think the part through where I’d end up dancing with Rey,” Jess confessed.  “I was very unprepared.”

“Yeah, well, now Poe and Finn can’t stop staring at each other past Car’qossa and Kare, so I think you were on to something, you beautiful idiot.”  He picked her up completely and twirled her around, feet flying through the air.  He set her back down just in time for the twirl again.

She seriously didn’t plan it so that when the song ended she’d be paired back with Rey and Poe would be back with Finn.  She also certainly hadn’t been the one to queue up a slow romantic ballad as the next song.  Jess glared at Snap over Rey’s shoulder, and he just shrugged and pointed at Finn and Poe, lost in their own little slow-dance world.

Rey pressed closer, which was a mighty distraction.  “So this is a different type of dancing?” she whispered breathlessly into Jessika’s ear.  “It’s different from the other one.”

“Good different or bad different?” Jess asked.  “We can stop if you want to.”

Rey paused for a moment as they swayed, clearly considering.  “It’s good different.  I like it.  We can keep going.”  Jess felt her smile, faces practically brushing.  “Plus this way you can run recon on our boys.”

Jess chuckled.  “We’ll make a full rotation so you can do some recon, too, but right now they’re all wrapped up from chest to hips.  Poe looks so dopey, it’s like someone handed him a baby bantha.”

Rey frowned.  “Are those cute?”

“So cute.  They’re covered in fluff, I’ll show you a holo later.”  She paused.  “Oh, man, Finn has his hand on the back of Poe’s neck.  He’s about to start stroking Poe’s hair, this might actually happen.  Poe has a thing about his hair.”  Their slow rotation meant that Jess could no longer see the pair.  Now all she could see was Rey.

“I didn’t know people had things about hair.  Do you have a thing about your hair?  It’s nice hair.  Oh, wait, Finn opened his eyes and now he’s looking up at Poe like Poe’s made of rations.”  Rey huffed slightly, and her breath ghosted across Jess’ ear.  She tried not to shudder as Rey continued, “I told you I’m bad at metaphors.  Ugh.  Poe has that one hand on Finn’s back, and he’s sliding it lower now--”

“Along the scar?” Jess guessed, and felt Rey’s nod.

“Yeah.  They’re staring at each other now.  They stopped dancing.”  A pause.  “It might be happening?”

Their rotation had brought them parallel with their quarry, and Jess dropped her head onto Rey’s shoulder so she could peek under her chin.  “Come on,” she whispered as Poe slowly, barely inched his face toward Finn’s.  “Get on with it already.”

“Just kiss, you krifflords,” Rey added sotto voice above her, and Jess stifled a laugh.

It was an unwelcome shock to all four of them when the Karrathian Death Metal blared out of the sound system.  Jess startled, jerking her head up directly into Rey’s chin.  As they both stumbled apart, swearing, Finn jumped back from a badly blushing Poe, who then turned to the rest of the room and loudly announced, “So who wants to play cards?!” with just a hint of desperation.

“I’m gonna murder Snap,” Jess grumbled, rubbing her head.  “Is your chin okay?”

“I’m fine,” Rey said, taking Jess’ hand and setting her fingers against her jawline.  “See, not even a real bump.  I’ve had much worse.”  Rey smiled brightly as Jess dropped her hand, fingers tingling.  “Cards, then?”

Cards.  That was when the bottle of rum came out.  Finn and Rey both got a bit of it mixed with some tropical fruit juice Poe had kicking around, because they’d never drank before and Jess was actually a responsible human being thank you very much.  That meant the bottle just kinda ended up next to her, though, which meant a lot of the bottle ended up inside her.  Some small, sane part of her brain pointed out that getting roaring drunk in front of her crush was probably not a smart idea, but then the rum got to it, too, and damn Rey was cute when she was just tipsy enough to giggle at everything and damn Finn and Poe kept touching hands when they passed cards to each other and they needed to bone already.

Basically, by the time that Finn and Poe folded out their hands and left to go back to their room, Jessika was very frustrated and very drunk, and that was a terrible combination.

“Snap,” she slurred slightly once Finn and Poe were down the hall.  “I’m changing my bet.”  Jess leaned across the table and grabbed Wexley’s face urgently.  “I’m changing my bet and I’m changing it to tonight.  Right now.  Tonight.”

“Bet?’ Rey asked, curious.  She giggled again.

“The bet on when Finn and Poe finally get together,” Snap explained.  “But Jess here is a drunkypants and she’s being an idiot.”

“I’m not,” Jessika insisted.  “I’m changing it to tonight.  It’s gonna happen.”

“How do you know?” Snap laughed at her.

“Because Imma make it happen,” Jess said with determination, staggering to her feet.  “I play to win.”  She walked confidently out the door, and maybe it wasn’t in a really straight line but it definitely had conviction.

“We should probably go after her,” Snap sighed.  “It’s bad when she gets like this.”

“Right.”  Rey nodded.  “Can I take the rest of the desserts with me, first?”

“Only if you split them with me.”

“Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have had this damn party scene in my head since I started this damn fic, and I wanted it done so bad I'm posting it from my phone, literally while I am on the bus, because I am that level of garbage.


	17. Polite Encouagement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessika blearily stared around the room for a second before stabbing her finger accusingly at Poe’s shirtless chest. “You need to get on with it,” she said with determination and just a little bit of slurring. That finger wavered and tracked around to point at Finn next. “Both of you! Kriffing idiots!”

Finn was flopped upside-down onto his bed, his head at the foot and his legs still dangling lazily off the end.  He was trying not to be too obvious about watching Poe hunt around for his pajama shirt, the muscles of his bare back rippling in the light from the bedside lamp.

Jessika Pava bursting through the door came as quite a shock to them both.  “What the _kriff,_  Pava!”  Poe spluttered.  “Knock, why don’t you?”

There were three things Finn noticed about Jess immediately:

  1. She was only wearing one boot.
  2. She was carrying the boot she wasn’t wearing.
  3. She was absolutely rip-roaring drunk.



Finn cocked his head.  This was a new experience all around.  Oh, hey, Snap and Rey were standing behind her in the door and Snap was carrying the rest of the baked goods!  Had they all just decided the party wasn’t over?

Jessika blearily stared around the room for a second before stabbing her finger accusingly at Poe’s shirtless chest.  “You need to get on with it,” she said with determination and just a little bit of slurring.  That finger wavered and tracked around to point at Finn next.  “Both of you!  Kriffing idiots!”

“Jess--” Poe started in a warning tone, but Jess would not be denied.  

“Just get over yourselves and screw already!” she half-shouted, waving vaguely between the two of them with the hand not holding the boot.  “It’s ridiculous!  You’re obviously in love with each other so what’s the kriffing holdup?”

“Jessika Blue Three Testor Redstar Pava,” Poe hissed at her, his face rapidly turning a violent red (some tiny part of Finn’s brain that was still functioning after hearing Jess’ words was was amazed Poe was able to speak so coherently when Finn suddenly found himself unable to move or breathe or possibly blink).  “You have no kriffing right--”

“I have every right!” she bellowed, gesturing toward him so violently she staggered a few steps in that direction.  “You two need to be happy!  And you’re not being happy!”  Jess swayed and rubbed her hand over her face.  “Do you know how bad this is?  Corporal Usaviam has noticed the sexual tension!  They’re a tree!  They reproduce by budding!  Their species is completely asexual and even _they_ have noticed that you need to _get it on_.”

Finn felt all the blood in his body throwing a party in his face.  His lungs didn’t seem to be functioning properly and his brain flung all these revelations around like stray blaster bolts pinging off the walls of a shielded room.  What.   _What_.

Poe pinched the bridge of his nose.  “Snap.  Why.”

Snap waved his free hand helplessly.  “Have you ever been able to stop her when she’s like this?  I managed to get the bottle away from her and that was a minor miracle in and of itself.”

“Rey?” Poe asked plaintively, and she shrugged and took another bite of her fairy cake.  “I’ve never been around a really drunk person before.  I wanted to see what she was going to do.”  Finn honestly couldn’t really blame her.  This would be really entertaining if it wasn’t happening to him.

“See?” Jess said, trying to stare smugly at Poe but misjudging his location and staring at the poster behind him instead.  “You know I’m right.”

“Yeah, like I’m going to take relationship advice from someone who I know to be a complete and total hypocrite!” Poe whispered hotly, his face now redder than Finn had ever seen it.  The blush was even covering his neck and part of his chest at this point.  Huh.

Jess froze, staring at Poe, mouth open in a small O of shock.  Her face slowly creased with anger.  “Oh?  Hypocrite?  You’re using _me_ as an excuse now?  Is that what it’s going to take?”  She threw her boot at (well, kinda near) Poe, who caught it automatically, and snapped, “Fine!”

And then Jessika Pava whirled on her heel, walked straight (mostly) over to Rey, and kissed her full on the mouth.

The room went dead silent.  Rey dropped what was left of her fairy cake and they heard it hit the floor like a meteorite impact.

Jess pulled back from Rey and gently (if a little clumsily) stroked her hair.  “Hey,” she murmured into the silence, and Finn desperately wished he wasn’t overhearing this.  “I think your face is really pretty, and I wanna kiss it with my face alla time, and I wanna knit you sweaters and bake you alla things you like and if Kylo Ren ever shows up again I’ll throw him inna trash can for you.”  She ran her hand over Rey’s cheekbone and smiled at her sincerely (if blearily) for a moment before turning back around and glaring at Poe.  “See?  It’s not so hard.”  Jess snorted a laugh and hiccuped.  “Unlike you’re gonna be when you do it!”  Behind her Snap buried his face in his hand, while Rey basically looked like Finn felt--frozen, hugely embarrassed, and maybe a little exhilarated.

“Jess…”  Poe groaned.  “Please leave.”

“Fine.  I’m done.”  She narrowed her eyes at him.  “Gimme my boot.”

Poe sighed and handed her back the missing piece of footwear.  She immediately upended it, dumping out a handful of foil-wrapped packets and a small bottle full of clear liquid.  “Be safe, Dameron!” she cackled.  While Poe blushed _even harder_ , Jess staggered back over to Finn and leaned over in what he assumed was an attempt to whisper conspiratorially.  Unfortunately it just came out at a normal volume.  “Listen, Poe really wants you to kiss him.  Like, a lot.  He’s just too scared to tell you.”  She reached out a hand to pat him vaguely on the cheek.  “You can do it.  I believe in you.”  Then, mission completed, she staggered out the door, barely avoiding a head-on collision with a still-frozen Rey.

Awkward silence reigned for a long moment.  Poe rubbed his face and took a deep breath.  “Snap?” he asked, waving vaguely after Jessika.  The other pilot nodded.  “I’m on it, don’t worry.”  Wexley headed off down the hall, leaving a statue of Rey and two deeply embarrassed men.

“Rey?” Poe asked gently, and the young Jedi startled out of her trance, blinking.  “Yes?  I.  I mean.  Um.”  She raised her hand to her lips, then looked at her fingers, then snapped her gaze back up to Finn and Poe.  When she spoke again it came out about an octave higher than usual.  “I’m gonna go!  Now!  Goodbye!”  The door snapped shut behind her as she fled, and then it was just Finn and Poe with one shirt between the two of them and matching blushes.

Poe sat down on his bed and buried his face in his hands.  Finn managed to regain enough motor control to roll over so he could sit up as well.  They sat in awkward silence on opposite sides of the room in what Finn thought was probably the awkwardest silence to ever awkward or silence.  He licked his lips, his mouth suddenly very dry, and tried to figure out what to do next.

“Um.  Is Jess gonna be okay?”  He’d heard stories about hangovers, and Jess was very, very drunk, something obvious even with Finn’s limited experience.

“Hm?”  Poe looked up, and Finn was again acutely aware that the pilot wasn’t wearing a shirt.  “Oh, yeah.  She’ll be fine.  Snap will get her to drink a glass of water before she goes to bed, and she’ll have a wicked and rightfully deserved hangover tomorrow, but she’ll live.”

“Good,” Finn nodded.  “That’s good.”  With that his brain apparently ran out of words.  He picked at a thread on his blanket absently while he waited for his brain to start working again.

Poe huffed a sigh and scrubbed his hand over his face.  “Listen, buddy, I’m sorry about Jess.  She takes things too far sometimes.  You shouldn’t listen to her when she’s drunk.”

“Why not?” Finn challenged automatically, heart pounding.  “Does being drunk make people into liars?”

“Uh.  Um.”  Poe blinked and bit his lip and Finn couldn’t stop staring at his mouth when he did that.  “Uh, sometimes drunk people exaggerate their stories, but lying isn’t really a symptom of drunkenness.”

“Okay.  So…  Was Jessika telling the truth, then?”  Finn licked his lips nervously, and oh.  Poe was _definitely_ staring at his mouth now.  Finn did it again, deliberately, and yep, that was one hundred percent staring, and he was pretty sure there was a tiny gasp in there, too.

“Ah…  About what part?  She said a lot.  Not all of it coherently.”  Oh, Poe was putting up a pretty good front of being calm and collected, but the blush was still there and he was just a little breathy when he spoke.  Finn briefly wondered when he’d gotten so good at reading people, then figured he was probably just good at reading Poe, and then he got back to the mission at hand.

“About the part where we’re obviously in love with each other.  And that there’s enough sexual tension that a talking tree has noticed.  And that you want me to kiss you a lot but you’re too scared to say it.”  Making eye contact with Poe right then was the most terrifying moment of Finn’s life, but he did it.  “Was she telling the truth about that?”

Poe’s eyes were wide and dark, and he was biting his lip again and Finn wanted to be the one biting that lip more than he wanted to breathe at that moment.  When the pilot finally spoke his voice was hoarse and low.  “And if the answer was yes?”

Finn crossed the room in two steps, somewhat startled that his legs were capable of supporting him.  He stopped just in front of Poe’s knees, not quite touching.  “Then maybe I’d do this,” he said, and in awe of his own bravery, leaned down and pressed his mouth to Poe’s.

It was soft, and warm, and just long enough for Finn to register that Poe still tasted a little bit like souffle before he pulled back and waited for Poe’s reaction.  Poe blinked up at him through those ridiculously long eyelashes and said, “Oh.  Good.  Then the answer is definitely yes.”  And then he reached up and wrapped his arms around Finn’s waist and pulled Finn down to straddle his lap and then they were kissing again.

Finn was simultaneously extremely grateful for all the books Jessika had given him since it meant he had some tiny idea of what he was supposed to be doing, while also acutely aware that reading about something was nothing like actually doing it.  His arms were full of shirtless, warm, extremely sexy Poe and it was completely overwhelming.  On some instinct he slid one hand across Poe’s shoulder and up the back of his neck to twine his fingers into Poe’s hair (something he’d wanted to do for what felt like _years_ ) and Poe shuddered and gasped a little into his mouth and then Poe’s tongue darted in and brushed against Finn’s and then the kiss was wet and frantic that was _even more overwhelming_.

Poe pulled his mouth away from Finn’s and Finn couldn’t help letting out a little whine.  It turned into a gasp, though, when Poe started mouthing kisses along his jawline and down the side of his neck.  Finn clutched onto Poe’s shoulder like a lifeline while Poe’s hands roamed his back, coming to rest firmly just above his sacrum. Finn had barely enough time to catch his breath before Poe dragged his tongue up the side of his neck, and Finn gasped out a moan and unintentionally ground his hips into Poe’s.

Three things became immediately apparent:

  1. Finn was very much erect.
  2. Poe was in the same situation, cock-wise.
  3. Two pairs of thin pajama pants was still too much pants.



Finn pulled away from Poe just far enough to fumble his own pajama shirt over his head and then leaned back in for another kiss.  Poe gently stopped him with warm hands on his shoulders and said, “Hey, hey, Finn, we don’t have to rush into anything.”

Finn frowned.  “I thought you wanted this.  Don’t you want this?”

Poe groaned a little bit and cast his eyes skyward.  “I do, Finn, I do, so much.”  He learned forward to press another kiss to Finn’s lips as if to prove it, then pulled away again.  “But I also don’t want to pressure you into anything you’re not comfortable with yet.  I want you to be sure.”

Finn opened his mouth to say something super sexy, and confident, and suave, something that would remove all doubt from Poe’s mind about whether or not they were rushing into anything.  Instead, what fell out was the unvarnished, slightly embarrassing truth.  “I’ve been thinking of you when I touch myself since before I got out of medical.”

Well, it seemed to have the desired effect, anyway, to judge by the way Poe’s mouth fell open and his hips suddenly rutted up against Finn’s.  “Force save me, Finn, you do not fight fair,”

“Do you want me to stop?” Finn asked, experimentally and deliberately grinding down against Poe again, smugly watching the pilot’s eyes flutter shut.  Poe panted a little, a tiny whine behind the breath, and gritted out a “No.”

“Good,” Finn said, and ground against him again.  Poe’s hands flew to his hips, stilling him, as the pilot tried unsuccessfully to swallow a moan.

“Okay, Finn, okay, we’re doing this, oh my Force we are doing this, but you gotta promise me that if something makes you uncomfortable or you don’t like it or you don’t want to do it, you’ll tell me, okay?  Can you promise me that?”  Poe looked completely wrecked already, lips swollen from kissing and his eyes half-lidded, but he made steady eye contact with Finn and Finn nodded.

“I promise.”

“Okay.  We’re gonna do this.”  Poe bit his lip and laid back on the bed, running a hand up his chest slowly.  “We go at your pace,” he breathed, all dark eyes and bare skin.  “I’m all yours.”

“Shit.  Kriff.  _Shit._ ”  Finn shook his head, trying to think with any level of coherency, which was a very difficult task indeed given the fine buffet of pilot laid out in front of him.  “Do you know how damned distracting it is when you bite your lip?” he growled, setting his hands carefully on Poe’s hips and running them slowly up the planes of his body.

“Distracting?  Really?”  Poe did it again, lower lip dragging exquisitely slowly along his teeth.  “Tell me how distracting it is.”

“All I can think about is how much I want to be the one biting that lip,” Finn confessed.  “And you do it _all the time_   In the mess hall.  At parties.  While you’re working on your X-Wing.  I felt like I was gonna explode.”  His hands reached Poe’s pecs, and he brushed his thumb over one nipple almost absently.  When Poe whined and jerked his hips up, Finn did it again, more deliberately.  “Do you know what it’s like to constantly feel like you’re about to explode?”  Finn bit his own lip, making sure it was the slowest lip bite possible, and carefully pinched both of Poe’s nipples at the same time.  Poe swore and practically arched up off the bed.

“Holy Force.  Okay, yeah,” Poe panted.  “I’m getting some idea of what it might be like to want to explode all the tiiiiaaaaahme.”  The last word turned into a drawn-out moan as Finn leaned over and put his mouth on one nipple, still rolling his thumb over the hard nub of the other.  Poe’s hands flew from gripping the bedspread to gripping Finn, one on the back of his neck and the other roaming up and down his back, tracing the scar along his spine.  At least, it roamed until Finn bit him, at which point Poe’s hand froze on his lower back, digging fingernails in hard enough to be barely on the knife’s-edge of pain.  Poe was mindlessly rutting up against Finn now, without a lot of leverage since his feet were still hanging off the side of the bed, and each thrust was accompanied by a little panting moan.

Finn pulled away from Poe’s face to kiss him--he’d intended just a quick press, but Poe pulled him in like a tractor beam and then it was a tangle of lips and tongues and a little bit of teeth.  Finn managed to pull away far enough that they were panting into each other’s mouths, breath mingling, and asked, “Can I touch you?”

“Stars, kid, I think you already are,” Poe said dizzily, and Finn smiled and shook his head.  “No, I mean, can I _touch_ you?” he asked again, with a significant glance downward.  Poe blinked blearily up at him and followed his gaze, then snapped his eyes back up to Finn’s.  “Yes.  Yes, please.  Kriff yes.”

Grinning like an idiot, Finn crawled backward off the bed.  He slipped his fingers under the waistband of Poe’s pajama pants and carefully pulled them down, Poe lifting his hips a bit to make it easier.  He actually carefully kept his eyes averted until he had the pajama pants fully freed from both of Poe’s legs, which was a great idea because when he actually lifted his gaze to look at Poe’s cock he lost the ability to breathe.  Finn had not seen a lot of erect cocks in his life (so far just his own, really) but he was one hundred percent sure that Poe’s was the most perfect cock of all.  It was hard and thick, a reasonable length instead of something terrifying (he’d given this a lot of thought based on some of the things he’d read), flushed darker than the tan skin of Poe’s abdomen, and leaking from the tip.

“Like what you see?” Poe asked, propping himself up on his elbows and smiling rakishly.

“It’s perfect.  You’re perfect.  You’re so kriffing perfect,” Finn told him sincerely, leaning forward and carefully wrapping his hand around the shaft.  Poe’s arms collapsed under him and he fell back prone on the bed, a truly _obscene_ sound coming from his throat.  “Finn.  Finn.   _Kriff_   Finn.  Oh stars.” he chanted in time to the rhythm Finn set up with his hand, stroking gently, the precome making it easier.  Finn rubbed his thumb back and forth just under the tip, and Poe latched onto his wrist with a whimper, stilling his hand.  “Not yet,” he panted.  “Wanna touch you.  Do you want to?”  Poe vaguely waved at Finn’s crotch region, and abruptly Finn realized he was still wearing his pajamas.  Well, that was stupid.  He let go of Poe long enough to quickly divest himself of his pants, Poe taking advantage of the break to shimmy back onto the bed so he was laying along it properly instead of half on, half off.  He watched with half-lidded eyes as Finn stripped down.

“Force, Finn.  You are gorgeous.  You are just a gorgeous human being, do you know that?”  The way Poe was looking at him made Finn weak in the knees.  How the kriff was this his life?  

The moment was slightly broken when Poe sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, casting his eyes skyward.  “Now hopefully I will never have to say this ever again while we’re both naked and aroused, but you might want to grab that bottle of lube Jessika dumped on the floor.”

“Oh.   _Oh_.  Is that what that was?”  Finn cast about for the bottle, finding it near the foot of his own bed.  Mission complete, he tossed it to Poe, who set it carefully on the nightstand and then opened his arms.  “C’mere, sweetheart.”

“Please call me sweetheart all the time,” Finn requested urgently, climbing onto the bed over Poe.  He hovered on his hands and knees for a moment, not entirely sure what to do with his body.  Poe reached up and pulled him down into a kiss.  

“Okay, sweetheart, pet, my love, pumpkin, sugar.  I’ll call you whatever you want.”  And then Poe’s other hand wrapped around Finn’s cock and Finn’s brain shorted out.  Someone was making urgent, high-pitched whining noises, and it took a moment for Finn to figure out that it was him.  He jerked his hips into Poe’s hand, unable to stop himself, not wanting to stop himself.  When Poe took his hand away it was to Finn’s twin distress and relief.

“Okay, lay down on me, Finn, baby,” Poe directed, and Finn did as he was told, brain still fuzzy.  His cock brushed against Poe’s and Finn moaned and thrust against him on instinct.  Finn managed to prop himself up on one elbow so he could see what Poe was doing.  Poe replaced the lube bottle on the bedside table and slipped his hand, palm cradling a dab of the clear liquid, back between their bodies.

Finn was somehow still surprised when Poe wrapped his hand around both of them and stroked.  He dropped his head onto Poe’s shoulder, unable to stop the sounds that were bubbling out of his throat.  He was dying, this was what dying was like, he was going to die from sex.  He was rutting into Poe’s hand, against Poe’s cock, hips moving of their own accord because his brain certainly wasn’t giving any conscious commands.  Finn managed to stay propped up on his elbow, slipping that hand under Poe’s head to wind his fingers into Poe’s hair and hold on tight.  When Poe moaned and shuddered, jerking his hips up against Finn, Finn knew that had been a good call.  Poe liked having his hair pulled, some part of him filed away for later.  Most of him, though, was focused on Poe’s hand where they were sliding together, the whole universe spiraling down to that one sensation.

When Finn had the bright idea to take his free hand and join it with Poe’s on their cocks, Poe swore and gasped and Finn knew that had been the right call as well.  Their fingers intertwined as they thrust up into their joined hands, and Finn was shaking and panting and there was a tingling sensation starting at the base of his spine and spreading out to cover his whole body and he was clenching up and then Poe whispered, “Yes, sweetheart, gorgeous, come for me, you’re so good,” and Finn tipped over the edge into hyperdrive.  He gasped and whined as his cock jerked hot liquid over their still-moving hands, and he couldn’t stop himself from _yanking_ on Poe’s hair and _biting_ down on his neck, hard, harder than maybe he meant to, but then Poe was gasping his name, over and over like a prayer as his body jerked up against Finn’s and coming hard enough that Finn felt some of it hit his stomach.

Finn collapsed next to Poe, laying halfway on him, unwilling to have to unlink their hands.  He tucked his face into the crook of Poe’s neck as Poe’s free hand wrapped around his shoulders, pulling him closer and rubbing absently between his shoulderblades as they shuddered through the aftershocks.  Eventually Finn managed to lift his head to find Poe gazing down at him with those ridiculous dark eyes and those ridiculously long eyelashes.

“Hey,” Finn managed.

“Hey, yourself,” Poe murmured, leaning in to press a gentle kiss to Finn’s mouth.

“I love you.”  Finn hadn’t actually meant to say it, but hell, there it was.  Poe beamed at him like he had when they’d first found each other after Jakku.

“Oh.  Good.  Because I love you, too.  So that’s settled.”  Poe kissed him again, longer this time, with a careful swipe of his tongue that was nothing like the desperate, hard kisses of before.  He pulled away, eyes soft, then shifted his hips under FInn and grimaced.  “Sorry, love, this is the part where we take care of practicalities.”  He carefully unlinked his hand from Finn’s, both of them shuddering a bit, and grabbed tissues from the nightstand.  Finn rolled over on his back and allowed himself to be cleaned up, Poe carefully wiping stray drops from his stomach and handing him tissues for his sticky hand.  When they were no longer in danger of gluing themselves together or making a mess of the sheets, Poe tossed the used tissues into the bin and tugged the bedding out from under Finn, who startled a little when Poe climbed back into the bed and pulled the blankets up around them.

“I…  You want me to sleep here?” Finn asked, dazed.

Poe propped himself up on one elbow.  “If you want.  I mean, it’s a small bed so we’ll have to cuddle, but I’m okay with that.”  He grinned and yawned.  “Tomorrow we can push the beds together to make one superbed, but I’m wiped and tonight I just want to sleep next to my boyfriend.

“You’re my boyfriend?” Finn blurted.  “My cute boyfriend?”

“Mmm-hmm,” Poe answered, shutting off the light and snuggling in against Finn’s side.  “For as long as you want me.”

“Is forever too long?”  Finn hadn’t realized he’d asked that out loud until Poe kissed him again.

“Forever might not be long enough, sugar.  Now sleep.”

Finn wanted to stay awake, to savor this moment for as long as possible, but Poe was impossibly warm against his side and he was impossibly happy and comfortable.  The last thing he remembered before he drifted off was _Man, Jessika is going to be so smug tomorrow_.

Meh.  Whatever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE SMUT HISTORIC ON THE FURY ROAD.
> 
> Drunk Jessika yelling at these two idiots to just bone already was basically the seed scene from which the rest of this story grew. I just had no idea it was going to take me seventeen chapters to get there.


	18. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jess crammed some fried meat into her mouth and sighed. “How bad was it?”
> 
> “Pretty bad,” Snap replied cheerfully. “First you told me to change your bet for ‘Right now, tonight.’ You did that while grabbing my face, by the way, the first face-grab of many. Then you burst into their room, demanded they have sex with each other, threw condoms and lube at them from your boot, and when Poe called you a coward you kissed Rey and declared your undying love for her.” He patted Jess on the head as she slumped over the table, groaning slightly.

Jessika woke up and immediately wished she hadn’t.

If she had the energy to be creative she’d describe how she felt in poetic, florid, and ultimately profane terms.  She didn’t have the energy, so she settled for something a little more basic:  Her head felt like a freighter had landed on it, she was ravenously hungry, and it tasted like a Hutt had died in her mouth.  While farting.

“Braaaaauuuuuuugh,” she managed.  After some consideration she managed to lift an arm so she could rub a hand over her forehead.  That didn’t cause her to die, so she carefully turned her head to squint blearily at the nightstand.  That also didn’t cause her to die, but it made the pounding in her head worse so she momentarily wished that maybe she could die instead of dealing with this hangover.

Right.  It was a hangover.  She vaguely remembered the bottle of rum.  She also vaguely remembered dancing with Rey sometime before the whole evening blurred out into an alcoholic haze.  “What did I do?” she muttered to the world in general, eyes squeezed shut.  When she opened them again a note on the nightstand caught her eye.

 _You got very drunk, dipshit.  Drink this._  It was in Snap’s handwriting, and attached to a tall lidded tumbler of water with two electrolyte tablets balanced carefully on the lid.  Snap was the best.  The _best_.  Jess took a moment to wish blessings on his family for five generations while she fumbled about dumping the tablets into the water.  She barely let them dissolve before propping herself up on one elbow (oh Force, why) and slugging a third of the container in one go.

Ugh.   _Why_.

Jess flopped into a sitting position, legs hanging off the side of the bed, and took inventory of herself.  Her boots and socks were off (did she take one of them off herself?  There was something about a boot being important in her memory) and her uniform jumpsuit was draped over the back of a chair, leaving her in her underpants and undershirt.  Her bra was still on, though, and between that and the hangover prep it meant Snap had been the one to put her to bed.  Bless the man.  Now just what the _kriff_ had she done between drinking the bottle of rum and getting poured into bed by her wingman?

Something blinked at her.  Jess rubbed her eyes and squinted at her nightstand again, eventually focusing on her comm unit.  She whacked back another quarter of her electrolyte solution and groped for it.  It was in her hand now and she hadn’t knocked anything to the ground, so that counted as a success this morning.  Grumbling about lights and reading, she opened up her messages.  There was a series of them, all from Snap.

_you drank most of that rum_

Yeah, Snap, obviously.

_in spite of that you managed to beat us all at cards you circus freak_

Jess grinned.  Her card skills were legendary, so it was good to see that was still true while she was loaded.  Why did she take her boot off, though?  And why was that the thing she remembered?

_yeah, you totally decided to take things into your own hands re: Poe and Finn_   
_you went to their quarters_   
_you yelled them into dating_   
_or at least yelled them about dating  
we all left before they really made any decisions one way or the other about dating_

Jess bit her lip.  Shit.  That was coming back now.  Her boot was important because she had filled it with condoms and lube instead of putting them in a bag like a normal, sober human would.  Assuming that normal, sober person would throw lube and condoms at her friends in the first place.  She made a mental note to apologize to Finn specifically (Poe deserved no apologies) and took another slug of her beverage as she clicked over to the next message.

_oh you kissed rey btw_   
_good job with that  
she was really surprised_

Jess spat electrolytes across the room.  Kriff!   _Kriff!_  Shitshitshitshitshit nooooooo, why was this her liiiiiiiife.

_and we have drills at 1000_   
_so you don’t get to hide in your room and wish it never happened_   
_the ship’s out of the hangar now_   
_i will come get you if you don’t come to breakfast  
get out from under that blanket_

Jess glared resentfully at the unchanging comm screen and slowly removed the blanket from where she’d flung it over her head like a more colorful version of Jedi robes.  Snap was the worst.  The _worst._

 _go shower pava, you probably smell terrible  
_ _you don’t wanna smell like old rum the next time rey sees you_

Well, she couldn’t argue with that logic.  Also, now she was dripping with electrolyte solution.  Jess downed the rest of it and staggered to the bathroom, shedding yesterday’s clothes as she went.  Maybe showering wasn’t going to fix her problems, but she could at least enjoy being being pounded with hot water while she dwelled on them.

Jess lingered in the shower perhaps a bit longer than was really necessary (of course it was longer than necessary, if she hid in the shower then Rey would never find her) but eventually her stomach made it clear that she was going to have to leave her room to seek out food.  She grumbled her way into the mess hall, though the breakfast line, and plopped down across from Snap.  They sat in silence for a moment as Jess shoveled food into her mouth and washed it down with her first cup of caf for the morning.

“Thanks,” she grunted eventually.

“Don’t mention it.”  Snap took a sip of his caf.  “Actually, do mention it.  You were really drunk and you kept touching my face.  Weirdo.”

“Not my fault your beard feels so weird.”  Jess crammed some fried meat into her mouth and sighed.  “How bad was it?”

“Pretty bad,” Snap replied cheerfully.  “First you told me to change your bet for ‘Right now, tonight.’  You did that while grabbing my face, by the way, the first face-grab of many.  Then you burst into their room, demanded they have sex with each other, threw condoms and lube at them from your boot, and when Poe called you a coward you kissed Rey and declared your undying love for her.”  He patted Jess on the head as she slumped over the table, groaning slightly.  “It was really a scene for the ages.  I have never seen Poe blush that hard, not even that one time his clothes got stolen in that spaceport populated entirely by pervy grannies and he had to walk back to the ship naked.”

Jess grinned into the table.  “That was pretty great.  They kept pinching his cheeks.”

“Speak of the rathtar and his cheeks,” Snap muttered, and Jess sat up enough to spot Poe and Finn weaving through the breakfast crowds toward their table.  Well, shit.  She’d been hoping to have a little more time before she had to make her apologies, but this was her life and it was terrible.  She glared angrily at her breakfast and tried to look like she was just super interested in fried tubers and fresh fruit, she couldn’t possibly look up right now when this food was so great.

“Morning,” she heard Poe say to Snap as she kept furiously inspecting her breakfast.  As he and Finn settled in she eyeballed them through her peripheral vision.  They didn’t _look_ mad.  They looked…  Huh.  They looked a little sleepy, but also happy.  Almost…  Sated, one could say.

Jess narrowed her eyes and shot out a hand to yank down Poe’s suspiciously high collar, exposing what was one hundred thousand percent a bite mark.  “Hah!” she crowed triumphantly.  “It worked!  I kriffing win!”  Poe smacked at her hand, blushing, as she raised her caf in a toast to herself.  “I was going to apologize but instead I’m going to say _you’re welcome_ , and may your relationship be blessed with many happy orgasms!”

“Shut up, Pava,” Poe muttered at the same time that Finn said, “Thank you!”  Everyone paused and turned to him.  Finn cocked his head.  “I mean, that was intensely embarrassing and please never do it again, but I can’t deny the effectiveness.”

“Don’t encourage her, Finn!” Poe hissed, and Finn raised an eyebrow at him.  “Be real, Poe.  How much longer would we have danced around each other like complete idiots if she hadn’t thrown a boot at us last night?”

“We…  We would have…  We’d have…”  Poe wilted under the combined raised eyebrows of everyone at the table.  “We’d have been idiots for basically ever,” he admitted.

“Right.  So I’m the best and all of my ideas are great _oh shit kriff Force_.”  Jess caught sight of Rey from across the mess hall and slid sideways off her bench and under the table like it was a carefully planned flight maneuver.  “Just…  Just hand me my breakfast down here.  I live here now.”  She glanced up to see all Snap, Poe and Finn peering at her and huffed.  “Hiding doesn’t work if you’re all _looking at me_.”

“You’re in luck, anyway, she looks like she’s heading out.  Morning, Rey!”  Finn raised his voice a little on the last, and Jess carefully peeked out from under the table to just in time to catch a glimpse of Rey’s raised hand as the Jedi turned a corner out of the mess hall.

Snap poked her with his foot.  “Go.”

Jess huffed and curled into a ball.  “No.”

Poe poked her as well.  “Do I need to get drunk and burst into your quarters and throw a vibrator at you?”

“No.  Shut up!”  

“You can still catch her if you hurry.”  Finn poked her in the side with his foot.  “Go on, it’ll only get worse if you wait.  Women always figure out the truth.”

Jess stuck her head out from under the table and glared at Finn.  “I am, in fact, a woman.”

“Right, so you’ll figure out the truth, too.”  Finn raised his mug to her.  “May the Force be with you.”

“Ugh.  Fine.  Fine!  How do I look?”  Jessika rubbed a hand over her face and tried to smile without looking like she wanted to die.

“Terrible!” Poe said cheerfully.  “Now go get her!”

“Fall in a hole, Poe,” Jess snapped.  She chugged her second mug of caf, ran her hands over her hair (like that was going to help) and took off after Rey.  Turned out Rey could move pretty kriffing fast for such a tiny human (which really came as a surprise to no one) and Jess had to jog to catch up with her, spotting her turning a corner up ahead.  “Rey!” Jess called, and Rey paused at the other end of the corridor.  Jess loped the last few steps and leaned over, panting.  Shit.  What did she do now?  She hadn’t planned this far ahead.  Rey looked curious and also a little wary, which…  Well, that was a fair reaction.  

“I need to talk to you.”  Okay, simple and true.  She could do this.  Jess pulled a face as a couple technicians walked past them.  “Um.  Not here.”  Rey nodded and they walked in silence out into the main hangar.  Jessika tried to eyeball Rey unobtrusively as they walked.  Did she seem tense?  She was she mad?  Kriff, this was such a mess.

They ducked behind Jessika’s X-Wing, where it wasn’t entirely private but at least the bulk of the ship shielded them from view.  Rey stopped and turned to face Jess with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.  Uuuuuuugh, this was the most awkward silence to ever exist.

“I owe you an apology for last night,” Jess blurted.  “I don’t remember a lot past the dancing, but I know I kissed you and I’m sorry.”

“Why?” Rey asked shortly, her face blank.  Jess blinked.  That…  Was not the response she was expecting.

“I think because I was drunk?  But that’s not an excuse.”

“No.  Why are you _sorry_?  Are you sorry because you didn’t like kissing me?”  Rey was a lot better at hiding her emotions than either Finn or Poe, but she seemed…  Offended?  Jess cocked her head.

“I’m sorry,” she said slowly, watching Rey’s face for any reaction, “Because I did it without your permission, and that’s a shitty thing to do.  And also because I was drunk, so it was probably a shitty kiss and you deserved better than me pawing at you like a rancor, especially if that was your first kiss.  And I’m also sorry because I can’t _kriffing_ remember it.”

Rey relaxed minutely.  “So did you mean what you said, then?”

Jess rubbed her hand over her face.  “I’m so sorry, Rey, I don’t remember what I said.”

Rey’s eyes drilled into hers, direct and shockingly honest.  “You said that you think my face is pretty.  And that you want to kiss it with your face, all of the time.  And that you want to knit me sweaters and bake me all the things I like, and that if you ever see Kylo Ren you will throw him into the garbage for me.”  She paused and swallowed.  “Did you mean it?”

Jess mouth was very dry and she couldn’t feel her feet.  She blinked several times very quickly.  “I like to think that if I was sober I would be more articulate about it, but yes.  I meant it.”

Rey blew out a breath and relaxed so noticeably it was like having the air rush back into a decompression chamber.  “Good.”

“Good?” Jess repeated blankly.  This could not be going the way it was going.

Rey nodded.  “Good.”  She paused.  “You said I deserved better than a drunken kiss?”

Jess nodded, explosions pinging around in her brain like a firefight.  “Yeah?”

Rey smiled, a little quirk at the edge of her lips.  “You’re not drunk now, are you?”

“No.  Nope.  Not drunk.”  When did Rey move so close?

“Good,” Rey said again.  She was right in front of Jessika now, so close Jess could smell the standard-issue Resistance soap most of the base used.  Really, there was nothing for it but to tilt her head, lean forward and press her mouth to Rey’s.

Jess was never so glad to be sober in her entire life.  Rey was soft and warm and smelled _really kriffing good_.  Jess wrapped one arm around her waist and rested the other on the back of her neck while Rey fisted her hands into the back of Jess’ jumpsuit and held on for dear life.  They broke apart, both breathing heavily, and Rey’s eyes flicked back and forth between Jessika’s eyes and her mouth very rapidly before she leaned in for another kiss.

Rey kissed like she did everything else:  Enthusiastically and with a deep wellspring of determination.  Somehow they ended up against the wall next to the X-Wing, not that Jess was complaining, and when Rey shoved her up against it she gasped a little and Rey took the opportunity to slide her tongue into Jessika’s mouth, and Jess was definitely _not_ complaining about that.

Rey pulled back to pepper kisses along Jessika’s jawline, and Jess managed enough presence of mind to whimper, “Kriff, Rey, where did you learn how to _kiss_?”

Rey grinned impishly.  “I’ve been doing a lot of research.”  She slid her fingertips into the hair at the base of Jessika’s skull and scratched gently while Jess made basically the closest sound a human could make to purring.

“Well, good job,” she muttered.  “Top marks for researching, you’re head of the class.”  Jess pulled Rey back in, determined to make a good showing in the “Jessika Kissing You While Not Drunk” exhibition.  She ran her fingernails up and down Rey’s spine and grinned into the kiss when Rey shuddered in response.  Her thigh had ended up between Rey’s legs somehow and Rey was definitely grinding against it and Jess wasn’t sure if that was a conscious decision or not.  Jess pulled back to suggest something like _Hey, maybe we should cool it since we’ve been dating for about five minutes also we’re dating now right_ when the unmistakable sound of Poe Dameron clearing his stupid smug asshole throat intruded into a _very private moment thank you_.  

Jess huffed a breath and dropped a quick kiss onto the end of Rey’s nose.  Rey, for her part, was blushing pretty furiously while also looking very annoyed.  Jess leaned out so she could see Poe from over Rey’s shoulder and oh.  Great.  He brought Finn and Snap with him.

“You know I actually left before the two of you got to this point,” Jess pointed out icily.  “It’s called being considerate, Dameron.”  Oh, no, Rey was biting her lip now and that was just terribly distracting.

“Yeah, well, it’s almost time for us to start drills, Pava, so while I do hate to interrupt, our duty to the Resistance calls to us.”  Poe saluted sarcastically.  Jess opened her mouth to say something snarky back when Finn added, “Also, Luke is looking for Rey, so I told him I’d come find you because…  Uh…”  He gestured vaguely at the two women and their general state of limb entanglement.

“Right.  Training.  Yes.”  Rey sighed and gently pressed her forehead against Jessika’s.  “Sorry.  For the record I would throw Kylo Ren into a trash can for you, too.”

“Hey, it’s okay.  We bear equal blame for this terrible timing.”  Jess pressed a quick kiss to Rey’s mouth and smiled.  “Go train.  I’ll see you later…  Um, actually, would you like to come watch a vid with me tonight after dinner?  My quarters?”

Rey beamed at her.  “I’ve love that,” she said with such sincerity that Jess melted all the way down to her toes.  They extricated themselves from each other for the most part, but Jess couldn’t quite seem to let go of Rey’s hand.  She gave the fingers one last squeeze before Rey turned to head off with Finn for training.  Jessika watched the two of them go with what she knew was a stupidly soppy expression, and really her only comfort was turning to Poe and seeing he had the same look on his face.

Jess held up a hand.  “I demand high fives.”

Poe obliged.

Snap rolled his eyes.  “This is disgusting.  You’re both going to be completely insufferable now.”

“Shut up and get in the X-Wing, Temmin,” Poe deadpanned.  Snap grumbled his way off across the hangar.

“Jess?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

“You, too.”

They stood in silence for a moment.

“Jess?”

“Yeah?”

“If you ever throw lube at me and Finn again, they will never find the body.”

“You used it though, right?”

“...Shut up.”

Jess grinned her way all the way through drills.  Fortunately no one could see her face in the X-Wing.

This was her life, and it was _awesome_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YEAAAAAAH THE HANGOVER AFTERMATH IS HERE AND IT FEATURES MAKEOUTS.
> 
> Did you know that working a full-time job and having a part-time costuming business and spending four weeks in rehearsals for a play really eats into your fanfic writing time? Because I sure know that!


	19. Good Holo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Oh, I see how it is!” Jess rolled her eyes theatrically and crossed her arms. “You’re just using me for my baking.”
> 
> “For the kissing, too,” Rey added cheerfully. “Don’t forget that.”

Jessika opened the door to her (hastily cleaned) quarters and opened her mouth to invite Rey inside.  This plan was abruptly interrupted when Rey blurted, “I don’t want to have sex with you!”

Jess blinked.  She left her mouth open, not really intentionally but it just kinda hung there while her brain tried to catch up.

Rey groaned and slapped a hand over her forehead.  “Kriff, no, that came out wrong.  I _do_ want to have sex with you.”

Well, this was just a turbulent flight of emotions.  Jessika closed her mouth, then opened it again, still not sure what was happening or what she was supposed to say.

Rey sighed and rubbed her face.  “Can I start this over?”

Jess nodded and closed the door.  She counted to five, plastered a smile back onto her face, and opened it again.  “Rey!  I’m so glad you could come over.  Come on in.”

Rey blinked, then caught on.  “Thanks for having me!” she said, just a little too carefully.  “I’ve been looking forward to it all day.”  She stepped inside and looked around, a genuine smile washing over her face as she took in all of the hand-knitted blankets, pillows, and various wall-hangings that made the room look not unlike a market stall in a textile bazaar.  “Oh, wow, Jess!  I really like your room!  It’s so colorful.”

“Thank you!”  Jessika ran a hand over a throw blanket draped over the back of a chair.  “My mom had textiles in our house going back five generations, so I don’t feel at home unless I have at least fifteen different colors on the walls.  Sit?”  She settled onto the bed and patted the spot next to her.  Rey sat carefully, obviously still a little nervous.

“I wanted…  What I was trying to say earlier…”  Rey huffed a breath and swallowed.  “I’ve been reading on the topic and most of the books say that when someone invites you back to their quarters it’s probably an invitation to have sex, and I definitely want to have sex with you but this is all still very new to me so I don’t want to have sex with you tonight.  I want to get more comfortable with all this--” and here she vaguely waved between herself and Jess and the room at large “--first.  I thought I should be upfront about that to make sure we both had the same expectations.”  She bit her lip and glanced sidelong at Jessika, not quite meeting her eyes.

Jess breathed a sigh of relief and gently took Rey’s hand.  “Thank you for being upfront.  For the record, if I invite you to my quarters, sex would be an appealing activity but it’s always entirely optional.  For tonight all I really wanted to do was watch a holo with you and cuddle and maybe make out a little if you want to.”  At Rey’s nod, she grinned and added, “Now I’m going to kiss you hello if that’s okay.”

Rey grinned in relief.  “I would like that very much.”

Jess leaned in and pressed her mouth to Rey’s.  The kiss lasted maybe a little longer than she intended, but that was frankly Rey’s fault since it wasn’t like Jess had put her _own_ hand on the back of her _own_ neck and held herself in place.  Rey’s eyes were bright when they parted, and Jess grinned at her like a doof.  “Uh, so,” Jess said, panting very slightly, “I did have a holo I picked out for us to watch.”

“Great!  That’s great!  I haven’t seen many holos!”  Rey glanced around and bit her lip, tiny spots of pink visible high in her cheeks.  “Um…  Did you maybe bake anything?”

“Oh, I see how it is!”  Jess rolled her eyes theatrically and crossed her arms.  “You’re just using me for my baking.”

“For the kissing, too,” Rey added cheerfully.  “Don’t forget that.”

“Like I could,” Jess muttered, crossing to the tiny table in the corner next to the instant kettle and the small cryocooler.  She returned with a plate of cheesy biscuits, which she presented to Rey with a “Tah-dah!”  Rey clapped her hands, wiggling a little bit in anticipation, and shoved an entire biscuit into her mouth immediately.

“Good?”  Rey nodded, chewing.  “Great.”  Jess queued up the holo projector and flopped onto the bed next to Rey, snagging a cheese biscuit on the way.  “Since we’re being open about these things, I want to play with your hair while we watch the movie.  Is that okay?”

Rey glanced over at Jess, still half-absorbed in the opening credits.  “I suppose so.  Why?”

“I like braiding, and your hair is pretty, and it’ll probably feel nice on your end.”  Jess gave half a shrug and took a bite of her biscuit.  “Plus if I don’t do something with my hands I’ll jiggle my legs the whole time.”

“Sure, that’s fine.  Shh!”  Rey waved at her absently.  “It’s starting!”  Rey was immediately enraptured in the adventures of a little girl trying to find her family and the little furry purple alien who helped her (one of Jess’ favorites from when she was a little girl herself), so Jess settled herself on the ledge behind the bed and carefully maneuvered Rey until she was settled back against Jessika’s legs.  Jess carefully took down the knots in Rey’s hair one by one before sinking her fingers into it and scratching gently at the scalp.  That got a full-body shudder out of Rey, who slumped back against Jess’ shins, pleased and pliant.

By the end of the holo, Rey’s hair was plaited into two intertwined braids on either side of her head, and Jess had slid off the ledge to sit behind her, one leg on either side of Rey’s body, pressed together back to chest.  Her arms were looped loosely around Rey’s waist while the Jedi draped herself backward against Jess, head resting on her shoulder.  As the final after-credits scene finished and the projector automatically switched off, Rey stirred slightly, stretching a bit and tipping her head so she could look at Jess out of the corner of her eye.

“Hey,” Jess said with a small smile.

“Hey,” Rey said, looking content.  

“Good holo?”

“Good holo.”  Rey smiled a little, mouth happy but eyes sad.  “Some of it was a little close to home, I suppose, but then it was really funny so that helped.”  She shut her eyes and snuggled a little closer into Jess’ shoulder.  “You were right.”

“Hmm?”

“About the hair thing,” Rey clarified, opening her eyes again.  “It was really nice.”

“Oh.  Good.”  With that, Jess felt her brain pack up a bag and head out on shore leave, abandoning her to an inarticulate fate.  Rey smelled nice, underneath the scent of the standard-issue Resistance soap.  She somehow carried something of the desert with her, mixed with the piney smell of the forest outside.

“I’m gonna kiss you now,” Rey murmured.

“Please do,” Jess managed to get out before Rey pressed up a bit and fitted their mouths together.  She made a pleased little sound and brought her hand up from around Rey’s waist to cup her jaw, brushing her thumb against the softness of Rey’s cheek.  The position rapidly became awkward and Rey swiftly solved the problem with her usual brand of directness by turning around and straddling Jess’ legs before sliding her fingers into the hair at the base of her neck and pulling Jessika back in for another kiss.

They’d somehow ended up laying down, Rey on top of Jessika and using her mouth to methodically explore every inch of the exposed skin on Jess’ neck while Jess tried not to whine too loudly, when a beeping sound eventually penetrated their kiss-drunk haze.  Rey pulled back to rest her head on Jess’ collarbone and groaned, displeased.  She sat up and fumbled in her pocket for her comm unit, deactivating the beeping sound, and sighed after a glance at the clock.  “I should go,” she said reluctantly.  “I have training tomorrow and handstands are even worse when you don’t get enough sleep.”

Jess pushed herself up onto her elbows, trying not to smile.  “Did you set an alarm for yourself?  A makeout alarm?”

Rey blushed and twined her fingers into one of her braids nervously.  “Maybe?” she said, trying to sound casual and failing.  “I was afraid I’d get distracted.”

“Well, I am extremely distracting,” Jess agreed, twisting one hand into the front of Rey’s tunic and pulling her down for another kiss.  “You should be aware,” she added against Rey’s lips, “That setting a makeout alarm is just _painfully_ adorable.”

“Really?” Rey asked, nuzzling her nose against Jess’ cheek.

“Absolutely,” Jess said, pressing light kisses to Rey’s forehead, temple, cheek, really anywhere her mouth could end up.  “It is exactly the kind of amazingly practical and direct thing I would expect from you and it’s _adorable_.”  With an effort worthy of celebration in song and story, Jess gently pushed Rey back into a sitting position.  “And since you were so practical and direct, you should probably leave before I distract you any further.”

Rey grumbled quietly to herself as she clambered off the bed, Jess following after.  At the door she paused to kiss Jessika one more time and sighed, “This whole ‘having responsibilities’ thing is a real let-down sometimes, I have to say.”

Jess nodded serenely.  “You get used to it.  Still sucks though.”  She pulled Rey into a tight hug and kissed her soundly.  “Goodnight, Rey.”

Rey ran her hand down Jess’ arm to intertwine their fingers.  “Goodnight, Jess,” she said with a shy smile.  “I had a really nice time.”

Jess grinned.  “Great.  I’ll plan something for tomorrow night, maybe?”

Rey bit her lip.  “I’d love that.”  And then she was out the door as it whooshed shut behind her.  Jess groaned and rested her head against the closed door, lips still tingling and the rest of her complaining quite deeply about the serious lack of more physical contact.  That girl would be the death of her.  The _death_.  She locked the door and perfunctorily stripped as she walked back to the bed, flopping down onto it in just her tank top and underpants.  With a quick scan of her thumb the drawer lock on her bedside table deactivated, and she narrowed her eyes at the contents.

Jess was aware that her collection of sex toys was extensive and surprising.  She was, to be blunt, quite proud of that fact.  She researched shit and only bought the good stuff and was always there when a young pilot out on their own for the first time and het up on adrenaline needed a suggestion for a purchase that could take the edge off.  She had _catalogs._

Tonight, though, she went with the basics:  A solid, rechargeable vibator with a good rumbly feel and several power settings.  Jess settled back on the bed and tried not to think _too_ explicitly about Rey as she clicked on to the lowest setting.  She wasn’t entirely sure how Jedi mind-reading worked and she wasn’t about to risk broadcasting _that_ to her girlfriend, her girlfriend’s dad, and the kriffing _General_.  She bit her lip as she lightly circled her clit with with the round head of the vibe, keeping her thoughts vague.  Shit, she was already so keyed up she wasn’t going to last very long.  Jess brought her other hand up to skate lightly over her breasts, pretending it was someone else’s hand (someone who looked at lot like Rey but _wasn’t Rey_ ) and pressed the vibrator a little firmly against herself, rocking her hips up into it.  She tilted her head to the side, where the pillow still smelled a little like Rey, and whined, rutting up against the vibe helplessly, all her muscles clenching, the universe shrinking down until all she could concentrate on was the tension between her legs, and she clicked up another power setting and immediately tipped over the edge, shaking and gasping out her orgasm until the vibrations made her oversensitive and she had to click off the vibe and breathe through the aftershocks.

Jess slung an arm over her eyes and dropped the vibe back into the drawer without looking.  “Kriff my life,” she said quietly to the room in general.  Who knew pining could make masturbation so much more intense?  Well, Poe, probably.  She pushed that thought out of her head and dragged herself to the fresher to clean her teeth and get ready for bed.

Maybe she should ask him sometime, though.  The look on his face would probably be _hilarious_.

(When she slept that night she dreamed of Rey.  When she woke up the next morning she unlocked the drawer again.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM STILL ALIVE AND SO IS THIS FIC.
> 
> I do not know why a damn date was so difficult to write. 
> 
> Warning: I am in production on a burlesque play right now (a science fiction burlesque play! With lesbians!) and I need to write the script for that next, so the next chapter is probably going to be on a similar delay. Sorry, but there are only so many writing hours in the day and I'm taking a feminist nerdy burlesque show on tour this weekend! Try to console yourselves with the knowledge that my life is full of smart mostly naked nerdy people.


	20. Blue Three:  Best Wingman in the Resistance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They worked their way through most of Jess’ kids’ holos and had started on the action adventure stories. (And made out.) They went exploring and climbed trees. (And made out.) They went swimming in the aggressively chilly river for a very short period of time. (And made out. Mostly for warmth.) Then Rey’s alarm went off and she smiled like a sunrise and Jess kissed her goodnight and then opened the drawer. (Jessika called it “Dating like mature goddamn adults.” Poe called it “Stuck in a holding pattern.” Jessika kicked him in the shin with a pointed look toward Finn and Poe shut up.)

In the end, it was the X-Wing that did it.

To Jess’ eternal delight and slight frustration, she and Rey quickly settled into a routine:  Breakfast together most days, then off to their various tasks for the day (Rey alternated between Jedi training and getting properly certified on various spacecraft, Jess did Pilot Shit), dinner in the mess with their friends, and then some kind of date.  With makeouts.  

They worked their way through most of Jess’ kids’ holos and had started on the action adventure stories.  (And made out.)  They went exploring and climbed trees.  (And made out.)  They went swimming in the aggressively chilly river for a very short period of time.  (And made out.  Mostly for warmth.)  Then Rey’s alarm went off and she smiled like a sunrise and Jess kissed her goodnight and then opened the drawer.  (Jessika called it “Dating like mature goddamn adults.”  Poe called it “Stuck in a holding pattern.”  Jessika kicked him in the shin with a pointed look toward Finn and Poe shut up.)

“So I thought maybe tomorrow I could take you up in my X-Wing,” Jess suggested over dinner.  Rey looked up from her overloaded tray (distracting her from food was no mean feat) and beamed.

“Really?” she said around a mouthful of stew over steamed grains.  “That would be great!  I still haven’t been up in one.”  Then, vocal duties for the moment fulfilled, she shoveled another spoonful into her mouth.

“That’s what I thought!  And since tomorrow’s a rest day we’ll definitely have time for a good flight, instead of having to squeeze it in between other stuff.”

“Yeah, because you’d hate to have to squeeze into anything with Rey, right?”  It had almost been possible to forget Poe was at the table.  Almost.  Jess rolled her eyes.

“Poe.  Please.  You’re slipping.  That was barely even an innuendo.”  Jess turned to Finn with a comical look of concern.  “Finn, are you banging Poe so hard you’re shaking the brains out of his head?  Is he just drunk on orgasms all the time now?”  She ignored the sound of Poe choking next to her, though she did thump him on the back without breaking eye contact with Finn.  “Because if so, congrats on your bed prowess, but eventually we’re gonna need him to actually be tactical again.”

“I’m sorry my amazing sex skills are inconveniencing you,” Finn replied, deadpan.  (Poe choked again.  Jess thumped his back harder.)  “I plan to make no changes.”

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to live with our new, stupider Commander.”

“It’s not really much of a change,” Snap threw in as he passed their table, heading towards the dishwashing station.

“I am still your commanding officer!” Poe hollered after him, offended.  “I can assign you the three-week boring patrol mission, you know that?”

“You mean three weeks for Snap to read romance novels without you around to make fun of him?” Finn asked with a quirked eyebrow.  “That sounds like a vacation.  You know that sounds like a vacation, right?”

“I give up.”  Poe slumped over his empty dinner tray dramatically.  “Even my own cute boyfriend has turned on me.  Such woe is my life.”

“I’m sure you’ll find something to live for,” Rey said with exaggerated kindness, reaching over to pat Poe on the head.

“Like Finn’s butt!” Jess chimed in.  Poe lifted his head to glare at her.  “What?  It’s a nice butt.  I don’t have to be into dudes to be able to acknowledge that.”

“It was all the armor,” Finn preened.  “You carry around that many kilos every day and eventually your butt could be as nice as mine.”

“Oh, for me it was freeclimbing the interiors of crashed spaceships.”  Rey looked very serious.  “That’s what gave me the nicest butt on Jakku.”  She frowned.  “Admittedly there wasn’t a lot of competition.”

“My great butt is just genetics, passed down through my family.  Great grandma, grandma, Mom, my sisters, it’s just a parade of fantastic butts through the years.”  Jess waved a hand expansively.  “We are a family of butts.”

“We’re just talking about butts now?  That’s what we’re doing?” Poe asked, face pointed generally in the direction of his own armpit as he tried to bury his head in his arms.  “We’re the best pilots in the Resistance and we’re talking about butts?”

“Are you mad because no one complimented your butt, Poe?” Rey asked with complete innocence and not a hint of sarcasm.  Poe lifted his head and narrowed his eyes at her in what Jess recognized as his “Oh, Really?” face.  Jess also recognized the look on Rey’s face, and it was a carefully crafted lie of wholesome sincerity.  The staring contest lasted until just short of where it would become awkward and Poe cracked.  “I mean,” he said, with only a touch of petulance.  “I do have a nice butt and I’m feeling really left out, here.”

“Poe.”  Jess fixed him with a flat look.  “People have literally written poems about your butt.   _Poems._ They were leaving them in your locker.  Have you forgotten so soon?”

“Poe,” Rey cut in, tone serious.  “If I found your butt as salvage on Jakku, I would have been able to trade it for sixty portions.  That’s a very valuable butt.”

“Thank, you, Rey.”  Poe crossed his arms and pouted.  “At least someone here knows how to compliment a guy.”

“I was pretty sure I made my opinion on your butt extremely clear last night.  And this morning.  And the night before that.”  Finn took a casual sip of his iced herbal tea as Poe choked on air, cheeks flushing.  “Was I not obvious enough?  Should I grab it more?  Are you more into sp--”  Whatever Finn was going to say would have to remain shrouded in mystery as Poe dove across the table and slapped his hand over Finn’s mouth.

“That is enough about my butt!  Thank you!  Dinner is done!  See you later!”  Poe slid the rest of the way across the table and, in a frankly impressive display of acrobatics, somehow managed to get to his feet, while pulling Finn to standing as well and then dragging the former Stormtrooper out of the dining hall, mouth still covered.  Finn winked at Jess before they disappeared out the door.

Jess grinned and shook her head.  “I’m just so proud of that sweet summer child.  He’s come so far and can sass so much.”  She pretended to wipe a tear from her eye.

Rey laughed and then narrowed her eyes at Poe and Finn’s abandoned dining trays.  “They’re not coming back, right?”

Jess chuckled and pushed Poe’s tray across the table to her.

\---

“So where am I supposed to sit, exactly?” Rey asked, looking ridiculously adorable in a standard-issue flightsuit with a helmet under one arm.  

Jess grinned down at her and swung her leg over the edge into the cockpit.  “Oh, you’re clever.  I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”  She settled down into the pilot’s chair and shimmied a little in anticipation as she heard Rey climb up the docking ladder.  Rey’s head poked over the top edge and the young Jedi narrowed her eyes at the compact space thoughtfully before she gracefully swung inside and settled herself directly into Jess’ lap.

“Is this okay?” she asked innocently, wiggling a little to get more comfortable.  Jess died a little inside while at the same time this was giving her _life_ , and she managed to squeak out, “Oh, yeah, totally fine.”  Rey smirked at her sidelong over her shoulder and put on the flight helmet.

Right.  Flying.  Jess was good at this.  Professionalism actually kicked in, and she buckled the safety harnesses around the both of them and performed all her pre-flight checks.  Her grumpy old R4 unit expressed his displeasure at going on a completely useless, unofficial flight, which she ignored like usual since he complained about every flight.  Rufus was just a grump.  Jess tapped the side of Rey’s helmet gently, and Rey immediately leaned to the side so Jessika could peer around her and taxi them safely out of the hangar.  They got to the runway without incident and Jess grinned.

And _gunned it_.

Rey’s squeal of delight echoed in her ears twice, the comm slightly delayed from the in-person sound.  Jess couldn’t resist showing off a little, bringing Blue Three through a complicated series of aerial maneuvers and also maybe some completely unnecessary forest flying, dodging trees like a champion (which she totally was, thanks).  Eventually, though, she brought them over a nearby lake and switch the piloting controls over to auto.

“That was great!” Rey beamed.  “You’re a really good pilot!”  She twined her fingers with Jess’ now that they weren’t being used for Important Flying Tasks.  Jess wrapped her arms around Rey’s waist and squeezed.  “Thanks!” she said.  “I understand you aren’t half bad yourself.  You want to take over?”

“Yes!”  Rey bounced in Jessika’s lap in excitement, which was how Jess found out you could be delighted by how adorable a person was while also _painfully turned on_.  “Review your controls for me?  I’ve flown X-Wings in simulations but this is your personal ship so I’m sure she has some quirks.”  Rey turned her head far enough to bonk the forehead of her helmet against Jessika’s.  “Just like you.”

Jess laughed.  “You’re not wrong there.  Blue Three has some bodge repairs that have just become part of her now.  First off, the throttle is a little touchy…”  Jess spent about five minutes detailing the unique weirdness of her X-Wing before she was satisfied Rey understood (Rey: a quick learner in everything from kissing to ship parts) and then she settled back as Rey turned off the autopilot.  The young Jedi spent a moment working out the feel of the ship and then…

Well, later, all Jess really remembered was being exhilarated, terrified, and so aroused she thought she might explode.  Jessika was a good pilot, even great, and that wasn’t ego talking.  Rey, though?  Rey was a _genius_.  Rey took them on maneuvers Jessika would only have attempted in zero-g space.  Rey did them in atmo while fighting the gravity of a _planet_.  Rey made that old X-Wing sing like a top-of-the-line model.  When the fuel cells were drained by a quarter they set down, and Jess tried to catch her breath.  Holy kriff.   _Holy kriff._

The whole “panting like a sweaty bantha” situation was not helped by the fact that once they’d docked back in Blue Three’s berth, Rey unbuckled the safety harness, turned around in Jess’ lap (how was that possible there was like no room in the cockpit) and yanked off both their helmets to crash their faces together.  Rey kissed Jess like both their lives depended on it, like it was the only way to save the universe, and Jess lost track of the passage of time and control over her own body and didn’t even mind that they were crammed together in a tiny space and both seemed to be made primarily of elbows.  When Rey eventually pulled back, her pupils were blown wide and her face was flushed.  “I think we should go to your quarters,” she said, very urgently.  Jess blinked at her stupidly.

“ _Now_.”

Jess came back to herself.  “Yes.  My quarters.  Yes.  Now.  Let’s go!”  She popped the hatch on the cockpit and Rey didn’t actually even wait for the ladder, she just launched herself out of the X-Wing and landed lightly on her feet like some kind of sexy predatory animal.  It was _super hot_ , and Jess clambered out of the cockpit with much less grace but just as much urgency.  As soon as her feet touched the ground Rey grabbed her hand and was sprinting through the base, dragging Jess behind her, and wow they had to be completely obvious about what was happening because they were _not_ being subtle and they both were flushed and sweaty already but Jess did not give one single solitary shit about it.

It took far too long (like maybe five minutes) before they were at Jess’ quarters and she was palming the lock on the door open and they were stumbling inside.  Rey was on her again immediately, managing to kiss her _and_ unzip Jessika’s flight suit _and_ walk them backward toward the bed in the corner, all at the same time.  Later, Jess would have the brainpower to be impressed by that, but at the time she was pretty distracted.  They broke the kiss when Jessika’s knees hit the edge of the bed and she sat down, panting.

“I want to have sex with you.  Now.  In case that wasn’t clear.”  Rey unzipped her own flight suit and tried to perfunctorily strip out of it, but she forgot the boots and had to hop around untangling herself.

“I had rather gotten that impression,” Jess said with dry amusement as Rey conquered the boot situation.  Rey looked up, suddenly worried.  “You want to, right?  I’m supposed to make sure, I just got so caught up…”

“Rey,” Jess cut her off, stripping out of her own flight suit as well (she remembered the boots come off first).  “I am so turned on right now that the First Order could attack and I would still heavily consider just banging you rather than actually fighting back.  Yes, I want to have sex with you.  Like, a lot.”

Rey beamed at her in relief.  “Oh, good.”  She then abruptly stripped off her underclothes and suddenly there was a very naked Rey in the middle of Jessika’s room and Jess froze with her head sticking halfway out of her undershirt and just stared.

Rey frowned.  “Is something wrong?”

“No!” Jess said from somewhere inside her shirt.  “Everything is so right right now.  You’re just even prettier than I’d imagined.”

Rey flushed.  “Thank you.  Now hurry up, I want to see you naked, too.”  She impatiently pulled Jessika’s shirt the rest of the way off and helped Jess divest herself of the rest of her clothes, then pushed the pilot back onto the bed and climbed on top of her.  “Is this too fast?” she asked, legs straddling Jessika’s hips, torsos pressed together, one hand snaking behind Jess’s neck to twine fingers into her hair.

“Kriff no.  If you stop I might die and then where would we be?”  Those were Jess’ last words for a while as she pulled Rey’s mouth down to hers, hot and furious.  Rey was…

Rey was _kriffing loud_ , Jess found out, which made sense for someone who had discovered masturbation while surrounded by nothing but empty desert.  She’d always been pretty noisy during their makeout sessions but it was nothing compared to the sounds she made when Jess flipped them over and leaned down to swirl her tongue around a nipple.  She practically arched up off the bed and Jess had to lean her forearm under Rey’s collarbone and hold her down with body weight to keep from being bucked off.  When Rey started bucking her hips against the empty air Jess tucked her knee into the juncture of Rey’s thighs and Rey started grinding against _that_ while Jess continued her breast-based tongue assault, and holy shit Rey was _so wet_ and the sounds she was making were obscene.  And _loud_.

“I should have known you’d be a screamer,” she murmured in Rey’s ear, sliding a hand down over Rey’s abdomen toward where Rey was still grinding against her leg.  “Can I see what other sounds you make?”

“Oh my Force, yes,” Rey blurted, practically begging, and Jess smiled a wicked smile and slid her fingers down to circle Rey’s clit.

Swear words in at least six distinct languages filled the room at high volume.  One of Rey’s hands shot down to clamp around Jessika’s wrist with almost bruising strength, holding her there (not that Jess wanted to move) while the other shot up to clutch desperately onto the headboard.  Jess tried not to let all of her smugness show on her face while she worked over Rey, waiting until she was shuddering and almost not breathing before she slid a finger inside her, pressing up toward the g-spot while her thumb kept rolling circles around Rey’s clitoris.

Rey stopped breathing, hips arching up off the bed, clamping down on Jess’s finger inside her, and held there frozen for a long moment before tipping over the edge and just kriffing _screaming_.  Jess kept going, drawing it out until Rey collapsed back on the bed, gasping and ineffectually pushing her hand away.

“‘S so good,” she panted.  “But too much now.”  Jess carefully withdrew her hand, eliciting another shudder from Rey, and pointedly licked her fingers (another shudder) before sliding over on her side next to Rey and spooning her through the afterglow.  It was a good two minutes before Rey stirred again.

“Jess.  That was…”  She paused, clearly trying to figure out the right words.  “I mean…  Holy _kriff._ ”

“I know.”  Jess preened.

“You’re…  You’re really good at that.”

“I know.”  Jess preened some more.

“It’s your turn now.”  Rey flipped them somehow (she was so ridiculously strong for such a tiny person) so she was spooning up against Jessika’s back, one arm snaking under her waist from underneath so Rey’s hand could slide up and cup one of Jessika’s breasts while the other unerringly slid between her legs.  Jess was probably going to say something witty or sexy but forgot how words worked as two of Rey’s fingers slid through her wetness (so much wetness) and came up to rub against the tight bundle of nerves at the juncture of her thighs.  “You feel so _good,_ Jess,” Rey moaned into her ear, pinching her nipple, and maybe in another life Jessika would have felt embarrassed about how quickly she came but in this life she’d been horny and keyed-up for while felt like _years_ and stars burst behind her eyes as she tipped over the edge and shook herself apart in Rey’s arms.

Some time later, when the power of speech had returned to her, Jess said, “Damn.”

“Mmm-hmm.”  Rey snuggled a little tighter into Jessika’s back, kissing the back of her neck.

“If you’re that good unassisted I’m probably gonna die when we get to my toys.”  Shit, shit!  Too forward!  Jess was sex-drunk.  That was the only reason that had slipped out.  

Rey perked up.  “Toys?”

Welp, this was happening.  Jess leaned over and pressed her thumb to the lock on her nightstand and tried not to die of embarrassment and nervousness as the drawer slid open.  The light gleamed off of silicone, glass, polished steel, and other, more exotic and expensive materials.  Jess stole a glance back at Rey, who didn’t look horrified.

She looked…  Intrigued.

“So…” Rey began, reaching a hand across Jess to ghost her hand across the contents of the drawer.  “Is there a rule about when we can start using these?”

Jess blinked at her.  “You want to?”

Rey shrugged, smirking a little.  “I don’t have anywhere to be for the rest of the day.”  She plucked a hard plastic vibrator out of the drawer at random and ran it lightly over the line of Jessika’s hip.

Jess dropped her head to the pillow and shivered.  “You’re going to be the death of me, you know that?”

Rey nodded solemnly.  “I accept this.  But what a way to go, right?”

She flicked the vibrator on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LIIIIIIIIIIIVE.
> 
> SO DOES THIS FIIIIIIIIIIIC.
> 
> It's a smutty holiday miracle for you all!


End file.
